My question is to the Premier. Earlier this month, the mayor of Belleville declared a local state of emergency after EMS responded to 17 drug overdoses in just over 24 hours, with a total of 23 overdoses in less than 48 hours. Devastated by the loss and desperate for support, the mayor of Belleville reached out to this Conservative government, only to have the request ignored.

Belleville needs $2 million to fund a local health and social services hub and a detox centre to address the ongoing addictions and overdose crisis. There is no time to wait. The community wants to see a new service hub open by the end of this year. So my question to the Premier is this: Will you immediately fund the desperately needed service hub and detox centre for Belleville?

Belleville desperately needs adequate funding to build and operate a local service hub, not measly one-time funding. They need reliable, continuous support to address the addictions and overdose crisis.

The community has been asking, pleading for this funding for months with no answer from this government. It’s not a “tough ask,” as the Conservative member for that riding and the associate minister have told the mayor. What’s tough is watching our family members and our community members overdose and die in the streets.

Last week, the Premier acknowledged the need to urgently fund mental health and addiction supports, but the people of Belleville still have no commitment for a much-needed service hub and detox centre in their community. So I ask the Premier again: Will you honour your promise about increasing supports by immediately funding the construction and operation of a local health and social services hub and detox centre in Belleville? Yes or no?

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, for the Premier: 60 seconds isn’t enough time to list this government’s failures in health care, but let’s give it a try. What if I told you emergency room wait times are the worst they’ve ever been, and ER closures have become the norm? That’s because we’re losing family doctors faster than we’re gaining them, and thousands of patients are losing primary care overnight.

On top of that, Bill 124 has shattered our workforce for nothing—you sure got that done—and there’s still no health care worker retention plan, so now temporary staffing agencies have stepped in and are burning a hole in our hospitals and long-term-care homes. But the Premier says, “Just let it burn.” As a result, hospital debts are ballooning, and they’re being forced to rely on high-interest loans because this government does not have their back. And now, desperate patients are being forced to turn to private for-profit clinics that are overcharging elderly patients while this government turns a blind eye.

Mr. Speaker, why should this government trust any of the Premier’s promises when all he has to show for his efforts is this long list of health care woes?

The government loves to brag about all the money it spent on health care, but what does it have to show for it? You wouldn’t see me bragging about spending millions of dollars on a car that doesn’t start. This government has created a problem that it cannot fix.

Through you, Mr. Speaker, to all Ontarians: They’re not thinking about your future; they’re thinking about their future. They don’t care about bringing your emergency room wait times down, and they don’t care about emergency room closures. They don’t care about keeping your family doctor or your nurse practitioner. They don’t care about anything unless someone is making a profit, whether it’s temporary nursing agencies, private for-profit clinics, developers drooling over the greenbelt, private companies like Staples, Shoppers Drug Mart and Loblaws. This government will always lead with greed.

Mr. Speaker, when will this government realize they could give the people of Ontario so much more if they would only focus on people, not profits?