I thank the member for his comments today. You’re talking about Bill 135 as a bill that’s teeing up our health care system for further privatization. You also mentioned that there’s a shortage of PSWs that could be partly addressed if they actually increased PSWs’ wages. You said that they would be able to attract another 1,200 PSWs into our home care system.

Do you think the people of Ontario would rather have their tax dollars invested in paying PSWs better so they have better home care, or do you think the people of Ontario would rather see $650 million invested in a mega spa at Ontario Place?

This government keeps talking about privatizing health care. They call it “innovation,” but it’s privatization. You just talked about some hospital projects that are being built, but they’re being built through P3s, which cost the taxpayer an additional 28%, according to the Auditor General.

You’re talking about this bill. It’s teeing up our home care system for privatization so that a portion of our tax dollars will be going into private, for-profit corporations rather than directly into care. You keep talking about numbers, but we have a crisis in our health care system in the province, and I’ll give you one number. We have 500 emergency room closures just from January to August of this year, and you’ve closed the Minden ER permanently. Why is this government not investing in public, not-for-profit health care and actually fixing the system? Why are you creating a crisis in our public health care system in order to privatize it and to shovel more of our tax dollars into corporate profits?