I take what my friend has said to heart. I think people do want to live at home. They want to be at home. They don’t want to be in hospitals. A number of persons with disabilities and seniors I’ve spoken to don’t want to be admitted into long-term care. That is a personal choice they’ve made.

But what you’ve said and what the government has introduced to date has not done anything about the fact that we are losing 30% on the dollar of every—there’s a billion dollars contemplated with this bill, as I understand it. We are losing a third of every dollar we’re spending because we’re lining the pockets of the for-profit companies. So all the good work that you’re going to do to take those thousand people and bring them back home into the community—if they can’t get a care worker to show up on time, if those care workers are double-booked, if their travel isn’t covered, if they’re not making decent salaries, if they have no pensions and no benefits, then I believe your bill is set up to fail.

What I’m going to do just to punctuate the point for my friend from Oshawa is to say this: Can you imagine an Ontario where there was an agreed-upon minimum standard of compensation for all PSWs? The government, through Ontario Health, could do it right now. That is what Denmark does. There is one standard of pay, one standard of benefits, one standard of travel being covered. Can you imagine that?

I can tell you, for any lawyer working for this government right now—you better believe there’s a minimum standard that they expect to be paid. Any deputy minister? Oh, there’s a minimum standard of what they expect to be paid. And they work hard. Why can’t we do the same for PSWs? Why do we have to watch them be gouged by greedy companies that have been ripping off the public purse for too long? That, I believe, my friend, is what’s hurting Cindy, and we need a government that’s going to stop that and stop it right now.

What I would say to all of those homes that are being built that are culturally appropriate homes—I want the workers who are going to work in those buildings to know that they have the right to join a union. We had SEIU Healthcare in this building not long ago. They should sign up to SEIU Healthcare, because right now there’s no government that’s willing to guarantee a standard of living and wages.

The member is a nurse, and I respect the work that she has done in the province of Ontario. The member benefited from that work done by the associations representing her profession.

I want to see PSWs valued more and paid more. That is the missing piece, honestly. Back to my friend: We can build homes. Homes and beds are great infrastructure. But what makes them come alive are the people who work in them. So that is the thing we need a government to do. And if this government isn’t prepared to do it, believe me, in 2026, there will be a government prepared to pass laws to ensure PSWs are paid appropriately, their travel is covered, they have pensions and benefits just like all of us in this building.

Questions?

Thank you to the member opposite for your remarks.

I do have a point I want to speak to. Ontario Health, as you may or you may not know, launched the Let’s Go Home program across all 15 OHTs in the west region, and this is to support the avoidance of ALC. This program coordinates seamless discharge from the hospital and emergency department diversion for those who are at greatest risk. Since this program launched, in fact, in the fourth quarter, more than 1,000 people have been supported. So my question to the member is, can you see how programs such as this are being supported through Bill 135 and would be welcomed in your community?

To the member opposite: You did mention earlier, and you are correct—our government is investing $1 billion over three years to expand and improve home care services. This is going to be across the province. That’s $100 million for community service. I will note that was part of our 2022 budget, which the member opposite voted against.

Also, budget 2023 accelerated investments to bring home care funding in 2023-24 up to $569 million, which, again, the member opposite voted against.

My question to the member opposite: Can you see how making the delivery system more streamlined, which this bill is going to do, will assist in delivering programs?

Home care services in Ontario address the needs of people of all ages, including children and youth with medically complex needs, the frail elderly and other seniors, people with physical disabilities, people with chronic diseases, and people who require health care services on a short- or long-term basis to live safely in their home and community.

With an aging population that is living longer, home and community care is going to be an increasingly important component of our health care system. It is critical that our system has the most effective structure, policies and approaches in place to ensure Ontarians have access to better and more convenient home and community care.

As outlined by the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, the gradual transition of home care into Ontario health teams is a fundamental part of the work to improve the home care experience for patients and families, and improve how providers collaborate to provide care.

Alors que notre gouvernement continue de moderniser les services de soins à domicile et en milieu communautaire, y compris la planification de la transition des services de soins à domicile vers les équipes santé Ontario, nous avons écouté attentivement et avons travaillé en étroite collaboration avec les organismes prestataires de services, le personnel des services de soins à domicile, les patients et leurs familles, ainsi qu’avec d’autres partenaires du système afin de garantir l’existence d’une base solide de soin plus étroitement intégrée aux autres composantes du système de santé et qui est fondée sur le principe central des soins axés sur le patient. Une partie essentielle du travail continu en vue d’une approche moderne et centrée sur le patient des services de soins à domicile est la continuité des soins aux patients tout au long de ce processus. Il est essentiel d’éviter toute interruption pour les patients et leurs familles.

Ontario health teams are already transforming how people access care in their communities. And the province has engaged in thoughtful planning and preparation to ensure stable home care delivery is maintained while improvements to care are made and the gradual transition to Ontario health teams takes place—because the only thing better than having care close to home is having care in your home.

The proposed Convenient Care at Home Act is the latest legislation designed to improve home care. Significant progress has already been made to modernize the home care sector to achieve better patient outcomes through system integration and help ensure the sustainability of our publicly funded health care system for future generations.

In 2020, our government introduced the Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act, which established a new framework for home and community care under the Connecting Care Act. This new legislative framework, complete with the accompanying home and community care regulations, took effect in 2022. This legislative framework was an initial step designed to facilitate the delivery of home care by Ontario health teams and enable new models of care, including changes to care coordination.

The Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act ushered in a new, flexible and modern framework for home and community care. This new framework enables the provision of home care services by Ontario health teams, as well as more flexible, efficient and responsive care coordination and service delivery by contracted service provider organizations.

Le nouveau cadre législatif et réglementaire des soins à domicile et en milieu communautaire établi par la loi sur les soins de santé a jeté les bases de service de soins à domicile intégrés, réactifs et innovants—qui sera maintenant davantage développé par la proposition de la Loi sur la prestation commode de soins à domicile.

L’une des premières étapes en vertu de la législation proposée consisterait à regrouper les 14 organismes de soutien aux soins à domicile en une seule organisation, appelée Santé à domicile Ontario, qui serait chargée de coordonner l’ensemble des services de soins à domicile dans la province au moyen des équipes santé Ontario, relevant de Santé Ontario. Santé à domicile Ontario serait un guichet unique qui fournirait aux personnes des plans de soins à domicile faciles à comprendre, leur permettant de connaître les soins qu’elles recevront et quand, avant de rentrer chez elles depuis l’hôpital.

La création d’une organisation unique permettrait de relever les défis systématiques liés à la prestation des soins à domicile. Au lieu de politiques et de processus différents, ou de systèmes de technologie de l’information distincts, une organisation unique pourrait réduire les fonctions et l’administration redondantes et soutiendrait l’efficacité du système et permettrait de généraliser les meilleures pratiques.

Ontario Health would fund and oversee both the new organization and Ontario health teams, helping to ensure strategic direction is aligned. Ontario Health would also be able to align funding and oversight of home and community care with other health system organizations and sectors.

Ontario Health has significant experience with integrating our health care system. Ontario Health has already integrated 22 former health agencies and organizations, such as Cancer Care Ontario, eHealth Ontario, Health Quality Ontario and others into a single organization, bringing together the expertise and experience of these former agencies to support a more connected, high-quality health care system. Ontario Health has worked with the Ministry of Health to achieve more than $300 million in ongoing, annualized savings to reinvest back into direct patient care.

Ontario Health is also implementing the province’s Digital First for Health Strategy, which provides employment for and administrative support of the Office of the Patient Ombudsman; supports the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence, which is helping to implement the Roadmap to Wellness, the province’s mental health and addictions strategy; and continues to support the government’s supply chain centralization efforts.

Ontario Health is enabling supply chain excellence across the health sector, including supporting home care by making significant progress in leading new provincial procurements for home care medical equipment and supplies and related services which are critical to delivering patient care. For years, there has been significant variation across the province, and this was identified as an opportunity for improvement.

Ontario Health and the Home and Community Care Support Services organizations have worked closely together to plan for implementation of these new contracts for medical equipment and supplies. This work will bring significant value for Ontario, improve the provider experience, and simplify and standardize key processes that focus on patient care.

Ontario Health has also enhanced the provincial formulary for advanced wound care products and developed the first-ever provincial formulary for home care products, which will be made available to all patients irrespective of where they are in the province, improving the quality and equity of patient care.

Le ministère a écouté attentivement et a travaillé en étroite collaboration avec les organismes prestataires de services, le personnel des soins à domicile et en milieu communautaire et d’autres partenaires du système, ainsi que les patients et leurs familles, et continuera à collaborer avec les partenaires du système tout au long de ce processus.

Au fur et à mesure de la transition vers les équipes santé Ontario, les patients et les aidants continueront à accéder aux services de soins à domicile et en milieu communautaire de la même manière et par l’intermédiaire des mêmes contacts qu’ils ont appris à connaître et en qui ils ont confiance.

Speaker, Ontario’s Home and Community Care Support Services organizations, which would transition to a single agency under Ontario Health, have also been engaging in collaborative efforts to support more connected home care, including supporting Ontario health teams. For example, Home and Community Care Support Services Central East is supporting the Durham Ontario Health Team leading project, which will deliver an integrated system of care for the residents of the downtown Oshawa neighbourhood. The residents of this area have higher rates of chronic conditions and a higher utilization of emergency, community and social services when compared to the regional average. Through the downtown Oshawa neighbourhood integrated model of care, patients will be able to access care from various providers on-site at a mid-rise apartment building that is also home to a significant amount of seniors facing socio-economic challenges.

Providers on-site will include care coordinators, community paramedicine providers, Lakeridge Health mental health services, Community Care Durham, and contracted service provider organizations. Care may also be accessed through self-referrals and primary care referrals, and the patient pathway is based on the principle of “no wrong door” to services.

In Central East, a multidisciplinary mobile emergency diversion team has also been established, composed of rapid response nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nurse practitioners and community paramedicine providers. The team assists with immediate patient care needs such as IV medication administration, wound care, and home safety assessments until contracted home care services can be secured. This temporary and urgent hands-on care is allowing patients to be discharged from the hospital, and it also prevents a return trip to the emergency department. The multidisciplinary mobile emergency diversion team was first piloted in the Peterborough area and helped to divert 92 emergency department visits within 120 days.

In North Simcoe Muskoka, a stroke care coordinator role has been developed to improve the transition from hospital to home and provide ongoing care for people who have experienced a stroke. Based out of the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre and supported by the Central East Stroke Network, the program has helped increase the number of stroke patients admitted to the home and community care support services stroke pathway and supported admissions to the pathway from all area hospitals. Benefits include warm hand-offs of patients who are transitioned from hospital to the community, a reduction in hospital readmissions for stroke patients, and improved integration between home care and outpatient programs.

In Central West, the hospital-to-home direct nursing service supports palliative patients through regular check-ins and symptom monitoring from a dedicated team of nurses. These nurses assess patients and can provide appropriate patient care, which helps to avoid an emergency or acute-care intervention. The hospital-to-home nurse completes weekly clinical assessments of the patient, their symptoms and the situation in the home, and provides education and resources to support the patient and their family so the patient can remain safely in their own home.

Home and Community Care Support Services South West has also implemented palliative care initiatives such as providing specialized education in palliative care, which is enabling patients to have access to nurses with more specialized skills in palliative care and supporting more patient- and family-centred end-of-life care in their place of choice: their home.

To address gaps in home care, the ministry engages extensively with key partners to expand more equitable access to services. The ministry provides up to $14.8 million in funding directly to First Nations communities to deliver front-line home care services such as nursing, personal support and therapy. An additional investment of $4.2 million is provided to urban Indigenous organizations to deliver culturally appropriate home care to Indigenous people in urban areas throughout Ontario.

To be more inclusive of all Indigenous patients, communities and organizations, a new category of Indigenous services has been added to the suite of services that comprise home and community care. Traditional healing services and Indigenous cultural support services fall under this category of services. These broader, more inclusive services will support more equitable access to culturally appropriate services for all Indigenous patients.

Already, new models of home care delivery are being implemented to enable a more integrated experience for clients and their families. The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario is now responsible for home care delivery, building stronger links between home care and the people who care for children at the hospital. Through a model of care called @home, a number of hospitals and health care partners are working together to provide eligible patients and their families with an integrated approach to transitioning patients home from the hospital.

Most patients enrolled in @home programs have been seniors at significant risk for re-hospitalization. Patients receive care for up to 16 weeks, after which many transition to home and community care support services for ongoing health care and personal supports. Care coordinators from home and community care support services central have already supported the safe transition of hundreds of patients through recently established at-home programs from five hospitals: Humber River, Mackenzie Health, Markham-Stouffville, North York General and Southlake.

Once patients are safely at home, home care providers continue to work together to meet the individual patient’s needs, often with one or more services such as nursing, personal support, restorative and rehabilitation services, and medical equipment and supplies. This connected patient-centred model of care has optimized patient recovery while also helping to support hospital capacity by ensuring the hospital beds are available for those who need them the most.

On top of all of this, last year we announced over $1 billion to expand access to home care services over the next three years, which will benefit nearly 700,000 families who rely on home care by expanding home care services while recruiting and training more home care workers. In addition, the government announced an additional $548.5 million investment in home care over three years that is in addition to the $1-billion investment previously mentioned. This will help prevent unnecessary hospital and long-term-care admissions and shorten hospital stays. Most importantly, it will provide Ontarians with the choice to stay in their home longer, close to loved ones.

We are seeing more and more examples of the benefits of connected and integrated care, including through the province’s community paramedicine initiative, where providers who are trained as paramedics work alongside home care and primary care providers to give people living with chronic health conditions additional support to live at home more independently. Speaker, home care is an important connector in our health care system, enabling—

I say distinctly to my friend over there that I will vote against any bill this government brings before the House that puts the interests of CarePartners executives, Bayshore executives and ParaMed executives over the interest of seniors and workers. They are all going to be voted against, because we know on this side who we work for. We don’t work for the executives who come into this building and put on open bar receptions and try to cozy up to politicians so they can line their pockets. We work for the seniors, we work for the persons with disabilities, we work for the PSWs, and we won’t apologize for it. That’s who we are. That’s who the NDP is.

Questions?

Thank you.

Questions?

I listened intently to the member opposite. I was glad that she was talking about some challenges that we have in Durham region and glad that the government, with seven members in this House that connect to Durham region—I’m glad we’re having conversations about that.

I will share with her something that a PSW named Cindy wrote to me. She said a number of things about what it’s like to not be appropriately compensated, the challenges. I’ve read that on the record before, but I want to highlight this part: She said, “I saw that there’s a waiting list for PSW service in home care in our area of 491 people. That is only going to get worse as we are treated as second-class health care workers.” I will note that this number is likely to have increased based on when she sent this letter.

My question is, if this is someone who is working the front lines, loves her job, wants to be respected, does not see that from this government and is concerned about the growing waiting lists for PSW service, how does this bill in front of us address that? What would this member say to folks like Cindy doing the work, doing the care and left—

I’m going to be referencing the latest report that came out from Seniors for Social Action Ontario; it just came out on October 2. I want thank Margaret Coleman, Marcia Smellie and Rick Chambers for sharing that. This is an organization that surveyed seniors about home care.

What they found was shocking, Madam Speaker. They found that, in Ontario, six times as much funding has been invested in institutional care versus home care. That’s a problem. If you want to address home care then you have to resource it. They also found out that because of this funding inequity, seniors feel that they’re being forced into institutions instead of home care due to a lack of choice. They also said that the underfunding and under-resourcing by the provincial government, as well as the clumsy hand-over responsibilities from CCACs and LHINs to the HCCSS, has proven to be very problematic.

Bill 135 does not solve these core issues. How is the government going to address the crucial need for reinvestment for a stronger home care system in Ontario?

Thank you to the member opposite for the question. The whole “why” and purpose of this bill is that we know that the demand for home care is increasing, and that’s due to our demographic changes as well as an aging population. We also have limited capacity in long-term-care homes, and the COVID-19 pandemic has really exacerbated these capacity pressures.

Now, why this bill is so important: Currently, there are 14 ministry-funded HCCSS organizations. What this bill will do is amalgamate these 14 into a single entity to gain more efficiencies.

This will be necessary in order to support the amalgamation of the 26 bargaining units currently under HCCSS and create a labour management structure that can support the transition of care coordination to the OHTs.

To your question, the member from Essex, in fact, the Ontario health at-home care coordinators are going to be playing a great part of the connection. This is going to help improve this entire system. They will work within the Ontario health teams. They’re going to work in other front-line settings. They will also work alongside the care providers, the doctors, the nurses and directly with patients while they’re in the hospital and working with the families so that they can ensure that they set up settings to facilitate a seamless transition from the hospital to the home.

I want to congratulate the member from Newmarket–Aurora for obviously having excellent mastery of the subject matter. My question for her is, in the riding of Essex sometimes we get telephone calls from people who are trying to set up home care for their family members and sometimes they find it difficult to navigate the system. So we have to help them navigate the system. My question to the member from Newmarket–Aurora is, how is this proposed legislation and Ontario Health atHome going to make it easier for people in Essex county and across the province of Ontario to access the home care services they need?

Thank you to the member opposite for the question. As I spoke to in my speech, part of what we’re doing is to ensure that we have that consistency across the province.

Right now, there has been 14 separate different home care community providers. What’s going to happen now is that this will all be connected under one central base with one back office system. That’s going to be critical to this entire process, as well as the OHTs, to ensure that home care service is provided and is consistent across this province.

Questions?

Ça me fait toujours plaisir de me lever pour parler du projet de loi 135, the Convenient Care at Home Act.

I like the question my colleague just asked, because this bill will not address the lack of service. It does nothing. In fact, you heard the colleague across say, “Oh, it’s to make sure it unifies the services.” They have no idea of the lack of services First Nations—or the north compared to the south.

En français, on dit : « Prends une paye puis sors. » Venez voir, dans le Nord. Venez faire un tour. Come and take a trip. Go up north. You will see what type of service we have or First Nations have. There’s such a lack of service this bill will never address.

I’ll give you just one example. And I’m going off cue, but we had in Moose Factory, I think my colleague will know—it used to be called Billy Bayou. It was in Moose Factory. It was for young adults and family members that had autism that also had other issues. That was a place they could bring their family members to have their services. There’s no other services up north. Don’t forget, that was the only service that these families had where they could have some relief and bring their family members to that little centre. It was a small, small building. It was a small house, but there was all kinds of services they were offering to give relief to the families.

Do you know what this government did? They cut all financing. They killed it. Do you know where one of the individuals—he was a young adult. Now, he’s waiting at home to go to long-term care, and I think there’s—I can’t remember how many long-term-care beds—six or seven, very little. It takes how many years? Somebody has to die. But he’s a young adult. He shouldn’t be going to long-term care. So you cancel Billy Bayou, which was a service to the family—the little help they were getting, and you killed it.

Et pour ça, vous vous pétez les bretelles. Vous dites, hé, on va unifier les services.

Il n’y aura pas d’unification des services dans le Nord. Il n’y en aura pas, parce que les services n’existent pas. The services don’t exist. My colleague from Kiiwetinoong has said it many times in this House. I’ve said it many times in this House. So yes, if you want to talk services, come up north. You’ll get a true reality check, a real reality check, because the services don’t exist. If you leave and go up Highway 11 and go up north—ha. C’est une vraie farce. Et quand on vous entend parler, vous dites que tout va bien en Ontario. “Everything is good in Ontario.” Ça va bien. Tu sais la chanson « Ça va bien! »? Sacrifice. Réveillez-vous, puisque la réalité n’est pas là.

Il y a du monde qui est obligé—je vais te donner un autre exemple. J’en ai parlé dans la période de questions. Il y a un monsieur qui est obligé de—comment ça s’appelle? Il était à l’hôpital dans le sud de l’Ontario. Il a été obligé d’avoir un transfert. He asked for a transfer because he found out he was having cancer, and because of the lack of service we have for flying with Ornge—he knows he’s going to die, but because the service is so bad, because of the transfer just to get the treatments, he said no to the treatment. He wants to go home and die and refused the treatments that may make him live. Because the services are so terrible, he says, “I won’t take the services because I want to see my family more.”

That’s the reality. They go up to Kingston. That’s where: Kingston. They live for months in hotel rooms, just because they have diabetes. The services are not there.

So now we’re talking “convenient care at home.” Well, you don’t have the same definition of convenient care at home as what we see up north.

Le projet de loi 135—ce n’est pas compliqué—c’est une extension de la privatisation du système de santé. On va arrêter de se dire de belles affaires, là. Ils peuvent vous monter des beaux bateaux, ils peuvent vous dire toutes sortes de belles affaires de comment le système va bien; s’il va bien dans le Sud, il ne va pas bien dans le Nord.

La réalité c’est que, quand Mike Harris était au pouvoir—il était l’ancien premier ministre d’un gouvernement conservateur—il avait dit qu’on va privatiser le système, que ça va mettre un système beaucoup plus vite, beaucoup plus efficace et beaucoup moins cher. Beaucoup moins cher? Il y un autre dicton qu’on dit en français : « Allume, légume. » Tu sais ce que je veux dire? Ce n’est pas vrai. Notre système nous coûte plus cher qu’il ne nous a jamais coûté. Puis je vais vous donner un exemple.

Dans un foyer de soins de longue durée chez nous, dans ma région, une « PSW » qui est syndiquée—bonjour, Mr. Speaker. Ça va bien?

Une « PSW » qui est syndiquée se fait payer 22 piastres et 59—$22.59 for a PSW in a unionized environment. This is from a long-term care in my riding. An RN? I’ll give you, first of all, for an agency worker: $65. Cheaper? You don’t have the same definition of “cheaper” as me. It’s a lot higher.

An RPN, unionized: $22.59. Again, it’s in the same long-term care. An RPN in that same long-term care, because it’s an agency: $95. They’re using two agencies; one is $95 and one is $85, a $10 difference, for all the numbers I’m giving—but not for the unionized. But it’s cheaper? Ce n’est pas la même définition que pour moi.

RNs: on parle de 115 $ et 125 $ pour l’autre agence. So $115 and $125 for different agencies in the same place, and then RNs in the unionized environment, $34.34. Where is the definition of cheaper when it came to private care?

Now, these homes and hospitals are saying, “We’re having a hard time paying for this.” They’re having a hard time making payroll. And I heard the minister today speak in question period: “Well, we can’t eliminate them; they’re being a great service.” Yes, at a higher cost. So what does that mean when we go to convenient care? How much is that going to cost?

Let me bring you to another reality up at home: You’re talking about a shortage of manpower down south? Come up north. PSWs are being paid peanuts. They have to travel—and you have no understanding of the distance we travel. So the same PSWs—and I’m going off track—

Meegwetch to the member from Newmarket–Aurora for the presentation. I know that in the north when you travel down to a hospital and then you have to get antibiotics intravenously, sometimes, you know, some of the patients are there away from home because you have to fly in to access that service. You’re there for six weeks, eight weeks, to get the home care—because there’s no home care in the north. You have to get the IV service or the antibiotics intravenously on a daily basis and you have to be away from home. I have a hard time on how this legislation will help those people so they can be at home to get home care.

Yes. So these PSWs have to travel—let’s say there’s a patient in Smooth Rock, so she’ll go to Smooth Rock Falls, and then she has to go to Mattice, and then she has to come back to another community. But because she’s paid so much an hour, she has to cut down, because the distance is too far to do on the same day, on the same shift. Guess what happens? This patient who has been diagnosed—and they say, “No, you’re entitled to these services. You’re entitled to have two baths a week, so you’re going to have an hour of service a day.” Guess what happens to an hour a day? It’s down to 15 minutes.

I’ll talk to you more about this example. It’s right here—and this is one couple in Mattice. They used to receive one hour twice per week. Now they are only getting 15 minutes per visit. This is not enough time to even bathe the patient, let alone help with their medication and tend to their other needs. There is no time for conversation. It feels like they don’t matter and they are just there for the money. The wife is also aging and can no longer do any heavy lifting and is limited in how she can bend and move. She would be willing to pay for more care, but there’s nobody available.

Nobody available—well, do you think privatizing the system will get more services up north? I’ve got a reality: They will go where the money is, where the people are, the population. And who pays for this? It will be, again, my constituents, my colleagues’ constituents, everybody up north’s constituents. That’s the reality we’re facing.

People are coming in. They’re finding out what the work is. They leave faster than they came in. These non-profit organizations—by the way, their budget has been frozen for years—would love to pay more, would love to try to retain them, would love to give them benefits.

And let’s not forget what you guys have done: Remember Bill 124? Oh, you really helped us there. Comme ils disent en bon français : « un bon coup de pied dans le derrière », monsieur le Président. Et je pèse mes paroles là-dessus. Je n’use pas les vrais termes qu’on use en français. Il y a un terme qu’on use en français qui n’est peut-être pas trop parlementaire. Je peux vous dire que je pèse mes paroles quand je dis ça, là.

Mais la réalité est vraie : vous avez tué notre système. Vous avez tué notre système dans le Nord. Il faut de l’aide dans le Nord parce qu’on a de la misère à avoir—on peut les développer, mais ils ne viendront pas travailler chez nous. Ils vont aller travailler pour les agences à 115 $ ou à 55 $ ou 65 $, pas à 20-quelque-chose piastres de l’heure. Puis qu’ils sont obligés d’aller rencontrer un patient et de dire : « écoute, monsieur, aujourd’hui tu as une heure—je ne peux pas te donner ton bain parce que je n’ai que 15 minutes à te donner »? Pas fort.

Quand je vous entends dire qu’on va uniformiser notre système—“we’ll make this system a lot better. We will make sure that everybody gets their service”—every time, you bring all the service and want to consolidate, like you said, do you know who pays the price? Northern Ontario pays the price, because then small communities compete with bigger cities, and guess who loses? Small communities, every time. And then you go north on that, even north, you pay encore more. They pay even more.

Fait que, quand je vous entends dire que vous allez uniformiser et que vous allez privatiser et que : « non, on ne privatise pas; on veut améliorer le système »—on l’a déjà vu ce bateau-là passer. On la connaît, la toune. Et la toune, c’est que l’on sait qu’il va y avoir une perte de services encore et que ça va nous coûter plus cher. Ce n’est pas moi qui le dit, là; c’est votre système.

On a eu des fermetures. On a passé proche à des fermetures. Il y a des hôpitaux—écoute, l’hôpital de par chez nous à Smooth Rock Falls a de la misère à faire le « payroll » pour quelques mois. Trois ou quatre semaines passées, vous avez été obligés de leur faire une avance jusqu’au mois de janvier. Ça ne règle pas le problème. Au mois de janvier, le problème va être là encore. Ils ont un million-quelque-chose de déficit à cause des agences que vous avez créées, la privatisation, et vous dites : « Mautadit, c’est beau cette affaire-là. Ça marche comme dans l’eau—comme dans l’eau bénite. » Ça fonctionne tellement bien que nos hôpitaux ont de la misère à y arriver maintenant, qu’on a de la misère à faire le « payroll » et qu’on a vu, en Ontario, des urgences fermées. Puis, on dit que le système va bien—qu’il va bien, le système. Je ne sais pas sur quelle planète vous vivez ou dans quelle province vous vivez. Chez nous, ce n’est pas de même que ça marche.

J’ai un de mes collègues qui vous a parlé du Danemark. Il y a des systèmes qui existent. On n’a pas besoin de réinventer la roue, on n’a qu’à aller voir où ça fonctionne. À la place de donner des millions de dollars dans les poches de vos amis, donnez-les donc aux personnes qui en ont besoin.

Vous nous accusez de voter contre vos projets de loi—parce qu’on sait lire, nous autres aussi. We know how to read. You accuse us of not voting for those—because we know where the money is going to go, because we lived it with the Harris government. On l’a vécu. On la connaît, la toune. On le sait. We know what’s going to happen, and we’ll always vote against it, because the people who need the services—this is where the money should go, not lining the pockets of your friends and these big corporations. That’s not where it should go. And I don’t think this is what you were elected for either, but you do it anyways.

Je vais vous donner un autre exemple. I’ll give you another example. His name was Miguel. Now, it was autism, but I’ll just use that example. Their family had to move to Cochrane to get some services, even though they weren’t sure—because he was a young adult and he finished school. But the mother was burnt-out. The family was burnt-out. They were even thinking—when the family is at that point that they’re thinking of bringing their son to the emergency just because they can’t handle it anymore, the system is failing. The system is failing, and this bill will not fix that.

Convenient care? You have to realize that, back home, there is no subsidized housing; there is no housing for people like Miguel or somebody that needs help. There are hardly any services. Some of them are overbooked; it takes three years to get in. That’s the reality we live day to day. And I will repeat again, if you go up north, it’s even worse. It’s even worse. So on Highway 11, if we are having that much difficulty, I can just imagine other communities up north, how they’re struggling.

But they had to move. They sold their house, moved to Cochrane, got a job—or tried to get a job—because they were hoping to get better service for their son.

What’s wrong with this picture? What’s wrong with this picture is that we should put the money where it’s needed, not the other way around. But it seems that it falls on deaf ears.

I said that in the north, families are already struggling as our demands are high, yet our access to proper service is continuously plummeting. Just before I go on again, think about this travel grant: Because we have so much land, we’ve asked how many times just to re-evaluate, because that doesn’t even reflect the services. Do you think these people that need the services to go see their doctors and everything shouldn’t be compensated for that, because we don’t have the doctors and we don’t have the services? I’ve got a community up north of 5,000 people; 3,500 community members don’t have a family doctor. That’s our lives up north. Some communities are worse off.

But to get back to this, they cannot retain workers due to poor wages, and I’ve spoken about that. These people went through some hard times during COVID. PSWs went through some hard times. They were there. They were giving services to the people who needed them. And yet, we didn’t want to move on Bill 124, even though we know it’s unconstitutional. Ce n’est pas constitutionnel. On sait que le projet de loi 124 est anticonstitutionnel, mais on continue à dépenser l’argent des contribuables. Pourquoi, eux autres? « Parce qu’on est mieux que toutes les autres décisions qui sont prises à la cour suprême de l’Ontario. On a eu des décisions de la Cour suprême, mais nous autres, on est mieux, on connaît mieux, on sait mieux. On est un gouvernement pour le monde »—for the people. Bill 124 is not for the people. Ce n’est pas quand tu gèles leurs salaires—dans les temps les plus difficiles, quand on passait une pandémie, qu’on vient geler leurs salaires.

Lack of replacement workers in the north: Families have been completely skipped for their weekly home visit as agencies could not find a replacement when a worker called in sick or could not make it on time. Can you imagine only getting one, two baths per week, and your worker does not show up? That means no bath for the entire week. I don’t know what you feel, but how would you feel if you could not get your bath? Comment vous vous sentiriez, vous autres? Un à deux bains par semaine, ce n’est pas gros, là. Mais ça, c’est une réalité continuelle. J’en ai parlé en Chambre drette dans mes débuts quand j’ai été élu. Pour une, ça faisait un mois qu’elle n’avait pas eu un bain à cause du manque de service. Se faire laver à la mitaine, comme qu’on dit en français—washing with a handcloth is not a bath.

Then, we’re saying, “No, we’re going to unify the system. It works so good there right now.” We’re hearing this government speak: “Everything is good.” Not back home. I’m not inventing these things; these are my constituents’ stories. You think unifying is going to fix this? It won’t, because too much money is going—exactly what my colleague has spoken to—to put more money in these big, big corporations, your friends. And that’s okay? It’s not okay. This is why we keep voting against your bills—

They’re measured by hours.

I thank your aunt in northern Ontario for her services, because I think we have to thank her for the work she has done. But tell me, if you want to have success, why can’t we pay the PSWs right now that we have that are unionized? Instead of paying these agencies $55 or $65 an hour, why don’t we pay these PSWs the same rate? Because it seems to be okay from your party. And I heard the minister today say, “No, it’s okay. We need them.” So why don’t you pay these instead? Remove Bill 124 and pay these PSWs the rate that you’re paying right now, because it seems to be okay, fine with your government, but yet you’re fighting this all the way, even though it’s « anticonstitutionnel »—I always have difficulty saying that word in English. But why don’t you do that?

This is why we vote against a bill like this. People say, “Well, what’s wrong with this bill?” When you start also explaining what’s wrong with this bill, they see it, because it’s opening more to privatization, and we know up north how privatization hurt us.

I gave you the numbers. When we talk in my constituency about the price we’re paying for agencies, and hospitals almost closing because they can’t make payroll—we need our hospitals, because we have very few hospitals up north and we have distances to travel, not to mention the highways we have to go through and drive through in the winter, and accidents. The list goes on.

But when you explain it to them, they understand, because they live it on a daily basis. So yes, we’ll vote against bills that are not addressing the problem, because that’s my job: to represent my constituents.

Merci, madame la Présidente, et merci au député de votre discours.

M^me Deborah Simon, qui est la directrice générale de l’Association ontarienne de soutien communautaire, a dit : « Les soins à domicile et en milieu communautaire jouent un rôle essentiel dans l’avenir d’un solide système de santé ontarien. Les modifications législatives qui renforcent ce service vital seront importantes pour favoriser les soins au bénéficiaire dans un système de santé intégré. »

Alors, je dois vous poser la question, monsieur le député : est-ce que nous pouvons compter sur votre soutien de l’Association ontarienne de soutien communautaire et votre soutien de ce projet de loi?