Speaker, it came out just the other day that this government is paying substantial bonuses to private clinics for surgery that is done in public hospitals. It was revealed that the payments to the Don Mills Surgical Unit, part of the Clearpoint Health Network—it is getting paid almost double the amount that public hospitals get paid for cataract surgery, double the amount for knee surgery.

This government is engaged in a straightforward project of privatizing our health care system. That project is one which will result in less medical care for people; which will result, ultimately, in people being able to pay for their surgery and health care if they have the money and having to go without if they don’t. It is a disastrous course of action.

I call on the government to end the privatization of our health care system, to stop paying bonuses to private clinics, and to actually protect the health care of the people of this province.

Well, Speaker, unlike public hospitals, which provide care based on our needs, the number one goal of a private clinic is to make money. These clinics only accept clients that are easy; they send the riskier, the more complex, the more expensive patients back to the public hospitals, yet our public hospitals have better outcomes.

This government is making sure that Centric Health Corp. makes a lot of money off the backs of sick people at the expense of taxpayers. Centric Health Corp. is a division of Kensington Capital Partners, whose stated goal is “to create top-performing investment solutions for our investors.” Does that speak of quality care?

Can the Premier explain why he is paying two to three times the price to a private, for-profit clinic whose goal is to provide “top-performing investment solutions” to their investors?

Interjections.