Madam Speaker, good morning. I’m proud to rise today to support Bill 135, Convenient Care at Home Act.

Before I address the bill, I just want to say that the fearmongering that’s coming from the opposition yesterday and continuing today—no wonder that some of our young people are questioning whether a career in health care is the right one. Because if you sit on that side of the House, it’s doom and gloom, but on this side of the House, we have some good news. Madam Speaker, you know what the good news is? That last year we had a record number of nursing students enrolled to become nurses in Ontario—30,000 nursing students, under the leadership of this government and this Minister of Colleges and Universities.

Under the leadership of this government, we allowed colleges to offer stand-alone baccalaureate programs such that just down the street from here, in an NDP riding, we have a francophone college for the first time that will be training French-language nurses right here in downtown Toronto. That is under the leadership of our government.

We have added 12,000 internationally trained nurses into the system, just last year. So despite what the opposition is saying, which is completely lacking of statistics, we on this side of the House have the numbers to show for it. In terms of PSWs, PSWs are our respected partners in care.

You know, when I was a nursing student, I trained with PSWs. I’ve learned from them, and even now when I deliver care, I often rely on the support from PSWs. They’re knowledgeable. They’re skilled and they’re part of our health care workforce.

Guess what, Madam Speaker? We have invested, into the accelerated program, into the training of 16,000 PSWs since we took office. That is a record number. I don’t know where that NDP math is coming from, but here on this side of the House, we have the numbers to support what we’re doing. I’m so proud to be part of this government, which is transforming the way we deliver health care in the province of Ontario.

So let’s talk about home care. Already, new models of home care delivery are being implemented to enable a more integrated experience for clients and their families, from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, to Newmarket, to the University Health Network right here in Toronto, to local Ontario health teams. But we know that there is more work to do to ensure our loved ones have access to care they deserve in their home, when they need it.

The Convenient Care at Home Act is a game-changer. This act, if passed, will mean that patients and families will see real, tangible improvements in how home care is delivered. But don’t just take my word for it.

Sandra Ketchen, president and CEO of Spectrum Health Care had this to say: “Today’s announcement is an important step in modernizing Ontario’s home care system. We look forward to continuing to work together to provide the best possible care to patients, in the comfort of their homes.”

And Matt Anderson, president and CEO of Ontario Health, said, “This ‘connected care’ approach, and the provincial investments to support it, will help transform health care delivery and support the vision of all Ontarians having full access to the care they need, across the spectrum of health care—all working together to deliver integrated care, through their Ontario health team.”

Our health system partners know that changes are needed and that the status quo is simply not working. We will continue to engage with our partners across the home care sector to support this much-needed modernization.

And our constituents, the reason we all wake up every morning and show up here at work—I wake up at 5 a.m.; I’m sure a lot of the members here do too. They are the reason why we come to this place and why we work so hard, and they have told us that we need to transform home care, to centre home care around the patient.

For example, in my riding of Mississauga Centre, I have a beautiful co-op housing—it’s called Camille’s Place. A lot of seniors live at Camille’s Place. I recently hosted a Thanksgiving lunch with the seniors, and they told me that they have concerns with how home care is delivered—PSWs do not always show up as scheduled—and that a change is needed, and that it has to be more localized in the community and more responsive to their needs. But I also heard so many positive stories, just chatting with the ladies over some turkey. They told me that their PSWs have become a part of their family. They show up day in and day out, respond to their needs, and over time they have become family members.

Again, this goes to show how indispensable the PSWs who work in our system are. They are part of our communities, and that’s why they need to be embedded locally into our Ontario health teams—instead of this fragmented approach that we are currently seeing.

It is so important to ensure our seniors have access to dignified, compassionate care as they age, close to their loved ones and community. Our seniors built our communities, our province and our country, and it is imperative that we take care of them. They have done their job; now it is time that we do ours. Our government is continuing to invest in services for our seniors as well as their families and caregivers.

I would like to speak a little bit about my private member’s bill that I introduced, together with the member from Thornhill, Bill 121, Improving Dementia Care in Ontario Act, because it is kind of related. We’re doing the hard work to support those living with dementia. A lot of those living with dementia, of course, need home care. That is why we have to have an all-government approach and all-government strategy to work with persons living with dementia, whether they are in their home, whether they are in a long-term-care facility, or whether they happen to be in the hospital. So, in the 2022 budget, the government announced a $15-million investment over three years towards Ontario’s Dementia Strategy, to expand community-based dementia services such as home care or day programs. And in 2022-23, the ministry allocated the first $5-million installment of the $15-million investment towards initiatives that reduce patient flow from hospital to a more appropriate care setting.

I had the opportunity to visit a hospital, Brantford General Hospital, where they have done something new, something innovative, something out of the box. What did they do? Well, they invited dementia care specialists into their emergency department. So any patients who are coming into the ER for only dementia-related symptoms actually get seen by these dementia care specialists. They are not admitted to the hospital, because we know that patients with dementia do not do well if they are admitted to the hospital, because it is not a place that is conducive to them getting better. So these patients are being held overnight in the ER, then they are assessed by the dementia specialist and they’re actually referred to services back into the community. What does this do?

(1) It reduces admission rates so those beds that are critically needed for critically ill patients are not occupied by patients who actually don’t have to be there.

(2) It provides better care for the patient themself and their family.

(3) It reduces the amount of cost.

So that is exactly the kind of solution that we need to look for with our partners, because the government doesn’t have all the solutions. We need to work with our partners and local communities like the Brantford General Hospital to bring forward innovative ideas to address some of the challenges that we are facing in home care.

These innovative initiatives specifically focused on expanding dementia-related admission diversion and discharge supports, such as behavioural support programs and programs delivered by Alzheimer Society of Ontario chapters. Investments in these initiatives were identified through the government’s ALC—which is alternate level of care—five-point plan.

I originally prepared a speech for 20 minutes, but since I only have 10 minutes, I will fly through some of these things. In 2023-24, the ministry expanded community-based programs through increased investment in the ASO First Link program and GeriMedRisk. The Convenient Care at Home Act builds on our work to date to ensure Ontarian seniors can remain at home if they wish. Our government is making a historic $1-billion investment into home care, which will help to stabilize and expand this vital sector for years to come.

I know I’m not the first to say this, but the only thing better than having care close to home is actually having care in your home. People don’t want to be institutionalized unless they have really complex health care needs and, at that point, they do need to move into our long-term care facilities. But it is really critical that we help expand the sector and localize it within our Ontario health teams because people prefer to stay at home. Actually, research shows that people who are at home with the right supports have a much better quality of life, and so that’s exactly the hard work that we are doing through Bill 135, the Convenient Care at Home Act.

I really wish that the opposition would get on board and finally support these initiatives because we need a whole-of-government approach, but I’m not hearing any solutions coming from that side of the House.

You know, Madam Speaker, what is by any means not going to come out is any solutions to our health care challenges that we are facing from the member opposite and her party. But on this side of the House, what we are proposing on top of this legislation—we are also investing an additional $10.3 million this year to support Ontario health teams to implement better ways to connect primary, hospital and home and community care for patients with diabetes, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and many other options.

On this side of the House, we are proposing solutions, and all you guys are doing is saying “no” to every single one.

Madam Speaker, do you know what we have done since then? We have currently shovels in the ground for 50 hospital infrastructure projects across the province of Ontario, and if we were to look on those benches over there, probably many of their communities are currently getting either a brand-new hospital or a redeveloped hospital. Over the course of the pandemic, we have built 3,100 new acute care beds. That is the equivalent of seven community hospitals.

So we, on this side of the House, again we’re investing in infrastructure. We are modernizing our home care. We’re embedding home care within local communities, within the 57 Ontario health teams, and we will continue to do that important work because that’s what the people of Ontario expect from us.

But if you want to talk about investments, this government is investing $14 billion more into health care than the previous government. This government also invested $90 million to build a francophone college in your riding. You should go and visit it and talk to those health care providers, those future nurses and PSWs. For the first time in the history of this province, we have francophone health care workers being educated just steps away from here, in your riding. So I highly suggest you go visit them and maybe listen to them for some innovative solutions.

That is why the member of Thornhill and I introduced Bill 121, Improving Dementia Care in Ontario Act, to make sure that our PSWs, when they graduate from our colleges, are actually fully equipped and fully prepared to work in the realities of home care and long-term care and acute care as well. So this is a whole-of-government approach. The member for Thornhill and I had one specific idea on dementia care but it is fully supported by this government. We will continue to do the hard work because our seniors deserve it.

But do you know what else, Madam Speaker? We are building two new medical schools in the province of Ontario. How about that? We’re going to have more doctors graduating every year from one in the community of Brampton—we’re very proud for the first time to have our own medical school in the region of Peel—and we have another one that is being built in Scarborough. Many of your members come from Scarborough. You should be celebrating this.

Guess what? We are taking a whole-of-government approach and a whole-of-continuum-of-care approach, meaning we’re investing in our PSWs, in our nurses and in our physicians and we will continue to do that.

But what I want to say is that my local hospital, Etobicoke General Hospital, has recently received a $2.5-million extra investment to hire more staff into the ER. I’m very proud to share that, because that is new funding and that will help with some of the capacity challenges.