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?

I rise today, in all honesty, to brag about the amazing folks and the community members in my riding of Hastings–Lennox and Addington. I recently had the opportunity to join in a wonderful celebration. The Lennox and Addington County General Hospital has had a volunteer service that has been active for 60 years now. The general public may not realize it, but these volunteers provide an amazing addition to our health care services. While these people might not put a cast on your arm or deliver a baby, they do provide an added level of care and comfort for the people at the hospital.

For six decades, they have been helping people find their way around the hospital. They have been providing a coffee or a quick bite to eat in the cafe and making get-well cards and small gifts available for the visitors. I, along with the hospital CEO and hospital board chair, had the chance to tell these volunteers just how grateful we are for what they bring to our local health care.

In celebration of that 60 years of service, the organization donated another $60,000 to the hospital foundation. And that’s on top of the millions that they’ve raised over that 60 years.

My thanks go to all of the volunteers and the members of that organization, and to their president, Marg Isbester, for inviting me to join in that celebration.