To the members: I listened intently to what you have said. I don’t see legislated measures to fully prevent upselling in a previous health care privatization bill, Bill 60. The results are the many stories about residents across Ontario, stories that I’m sure our colleagues, the members, have heard from their residents facing unexpected health care fees.

Do the members feel that the government will ensure that Ontario Health atHome prevents overcharging and protects our seniors, who have built this country, from misleading upselling?

Questions?

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

The House adjourned at 1755.

Thank you very much for the question. I actually just got a call from a constituent today who was sent to a private clinic that’s now doing some of the cataract work, like the government has asked them to do. He said, “Yes, I got there and they gave me two other options as the gold standard for the lenses that I needed.” If that’s not upselling, I don’t know what is.

But the thing that really concerns me is that in my riding, in the last two weeks, two clinics have opened that are charging a subscription or a membership fee so people can get access to primary care. I remember the Premier saying very clearly, like he did with the greenbelt, that you would never have to use your credit card; you’d only have to use your OHIP card. In the last two weeks, I can’t tell you how many families have had to pull out their credit card. That’s a concern. But also, that 2.2 million families don’t have access to primary care means they don’t have access to home care, because there’s no door in.

My question is for the member from Kanata. The member talks about increasing PSW wages, giving more care for our seniors, but my question is: Where was this member when her former boss Justin Trudeau was shortchanging all of the provinces in Canadian health care transfer dollars? It took all premiers from all political stripes to get together and advocate for over a year to the federal government which she was a part of, and public outcry, for the Prime Minister to finally increase those transfers.

Where was the member then, when now she is asking that we increase PSW wages? Well, guess what? The federal government has a role to play and it needs to stop shortchanging the provinces.

I thank the honourable member for her question. What the federal government was doing at that time was negotiating with the provinces to ensure, to guarantee, that money would be spent on health care. Too often, at the beginning of the pandemic, money was sent to the provinces with no strings attached, because they wanted to get the money out. They thought, “Okay, send it out to the provinces. Get it out there, so they can make the investments.” But they learned the hard way that that money was not being spent on health care, so they had to take the time to actually negotiate with the provinces and put guarantees in place, so that money would indeed be spent on health care. And we are spending that money on health care, and those agreements are doing what they were designed to do.

Kanata–Carleton.