Further debate?

I’m humbled by the honour and privilege to be here before you today on the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee people. These lands are governed by the Dish With One Spoon treaty, a treaty of peace, friendship and respect. May we heed the wisdom and all eat out of the dish, share the responsibility that the bowl is never empty, taking only what we need, and keep the peace so no knives are needed.

I’m grateful to work on this land, to support the land defenders and preserve it for the next seven generations. May we continue to pursue truth and reconcili-action in all aspects of community. Thank you to my predecessor Laura Mae Lindo. She is an inspiration to many in our community. She left big shoes to fill. She pushed for system change, and I hope to do the same. Like Laura Mae, I’m an eternal optimist, and I still carry some hope.

I’m proud to rise in the Legislature as the second-ever MPP for the Green Party of Ontario. While it’s me standing here today, I’m just one part of a bigger movement shaped by so many amazing people. I’m joined today by the GPO team, friends, family and staff. Many more in Kitchener Centre and across Ontario are with me in spirit, part of a growing group of people committed to combatting the many connected crises our communities are facing.

Thank you to Mike Schreiner for being so kind, generous and thoughtful. You’re an amazing mentor and MPP, and I’m learning from the best.

Thank you to MP Mike Morrice for teaching me how to love knocking on doors, for blazing a trail in Kitchener Centre, and for showing folks what good service, integrity and leadership looks like.

Thank you to my mom and dad and sister. Brendan Clancy has joined me today. My mom is watching. She was an amazing nurse. She was an advocate for her profession and patients. Unfortunately, she left the profession, pushed out by the mounting workload and a move to 12-hour shifts. My dad was a small business owner and a 30-year-plus volunteer with KW AccessAbility in Kitchener Centre, a group working to ensure that all have equal opportunities to thrive. My sister is a teacher and a union leader, and she works hard to ensure that workers’ rights are respected.

Of course, I wouldn’t be here in front of you today without the residents of Kitchener Centre. I’m very grateful for your trust and confidence in me. My job is to be your voice at Queen’s Park. I promise that I will always put people before politics by working across party lines to bring home better for you.

In our campaign office, we had a big, beautiful mural; it was about 20 by 15. It was an old tree, with many, many branches. On the twigs and branches, we put photos of community members who contributed to the campaign. Underneath the mural was a quote: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This became a compass for our office. When we go fast and when we go alone, we risk doing harm.

In social work, the field that I practised in for 16 years, our motto is, “First, Do No Harm.”

In Kitchener, in Ontario, and around the world, the systems we rely on every day are collapsing, and the harmful impacts are everywhere we look. In my riding, and I would say all ridings, people are finding it hard to get by.

Just the other day, a woman with a developmental disability came to the office. She was crying, she was screaming and she was angry, because for the first time in her life, although having deeply affordable housing, she didn’t have enough to buy groceries. She’s a survivor, but she can’t take it anymore. The system is failing her.

This year alone, in the Waterloo region, the number of families using the food bank more than doubled—that’s right; in one year, more than doubled. Why? Because food prices keep rising while grocery giants are raking in record profits. Last year, grocery giants made over $6 billion—yet another record high, and an 8% increase from the year before. That’s money out of your pocket that you don’t get back.

While prices of necessities have gone up, Ontario Works has been frozen since 2018, at $733 a month—ODSP rates are at just over $1,300 a month. Let’s take a moment to consider what it would be like to live off of $733 a month.

We live in a world of monopolies. The lack of competition in almost every sector means people are paying more than ever to survive—more on cellphone bills, more on rent, more on groceries, more on transportation. Not only that, but they’re galvanizing the attention and motivation of our children—these tech companies that steal the attention and motivation of our kids. The gouging has to stop.

Just the other day, I was walking through Victoria Park, and I struck up a conversation with a group of students who had moved to Kitchener from Brazil. They shared that they were barely surviving right now, despite having great degrees, credentials and jobs, because they can’t find an affordable place to rent. And I talk to a lot of young people who have lost hope of ever owning a home. Meanwhile, investors and pension plans continue to increase their investments.

In Kitchener-Waterloo, the average home price has increased over 159% in the past 10 years. Last year alone, Kitchener rents were up 6.5%. All across Ontario, homeless encampments are a new reality, and our communities can’t keep up with the needs of those who have been displaced from their homes. There’s an encampment in Kitchener that’s two blocks from my home.

Recently, our region invested millions to create a managed encampment with tiny homes and supports. Fifty residents moved to this encampment from the encampment near my home into these tiny homes. But because of our current drug crisis where needs aren’t being addressed and the housing affordability crisis, the encampment is full again today.

The number of people experiencing chronic homelessness in the Waterloo region has grown by 129% since the beginning of 2020. I talk to folks who have lived in Kitchener their whole lives. They say they’ve never seen this before. It’s never been so bad. And we’re on track to triple by 2028 unless urgent action is taken. Meanwhile, our affordable housing stock is being bought en masse and turned into luxury condos by real estate investment trusts.

This is not just a problem in Kitchener. In Canada, for every new affordable home that we build, we lose 15 in the private sector. We are hemorrhaging affordable housing every year. Housing has become a commodity when it should be a human right.

These factors that are causing the cost-of-living and housing crises—corporate greed and lack of regulation—are also the biggest causes of climate change. I became involved in the climate movement as a mom who wanted to do what I could to take action against the escalating crisis. I started volunteering with Citizens’ Climate Lobby and also answering phones for Mike Morrice’s 2019 campaign. I got involved because I’m grieving for my kids, for my grandkids or the babies being born today. They won’t know what it’s like to skate on an outdoor rink or pond, or ski through a bush, or even slide down a hill at a local park. I think we’ve all experienced this winter. It’s unprecedented. They’re also spending time inside in the summertime. Why? Because of wildfire smoke and extreme heat that makes it dangerous to be outside. Imagine children spending their summers indoors.

Recently, Ontario’s climate change impact assessment concluded that if we don’t take action to curb carbon emissions, Ontario will face 55 to 60 days of extreme heat by 2080. I talked to an elderly man who goes without food and shops at our local Tiny Home Takeout for free so that he can pay for an air conditioner to survive. Others on OW in his building don’t have that luxury.

Yet, oil and gas companies who have known for decades that their products are killing our planet continue to ramp up pollution and rake in record profits. That’s 18 cents a litre that you don’t get back. It lands in their pockets. Canada’s five biggest oil and gas companies saw profits of $38.3 billion in 2022. That’s more than double the year before—another double, the wrong kind of double.

Meanwhile, the cost of climate change—wetter, warmer and wilder weather—has been rising for decades. The Ontario Financial Accountability Office has estimated that climate change will add $4.1 billion a year over the rest of the century to the cost of maintaining our public infrastructure. It’s time to adapt.

Who will pay for this in the end? Who inherits the debt left by corporate greed? My children, our children, future generations will pay. Our home will pay, and all those who live on it will pay. We live on the only planet that’s suited to us, and there is no planet B.

So yes, there are many challenges, but in Kitchener Centre, so many of us are going farther by going together. As our mayor, Berry Vrbanovic, says, “We’re barn-raisers. We come together when someone is in need.”

There are so many people in my community who inspire me every day to push for more and for better—people like my friend Nadine Green, one of the founders of A Better Tent City, a place with tiny homes and great community. One night, she was sitting in her car when there was extreme cold. She decided to welcome unhoused folks into her variety store overnight. She didn’t want them to die. She didn’t want them to be left out in the cold. This became a habit, and she was evicted from her store. But she partnered with Ron Doyle and other community leaders to create A Better Tent City. They built 50 tiny homes and have a place to live for 65. They live in a warm community filled with dignity.

She’s joined by many others who work to provide homes for those who need them, including the Working Centre, Indwell, SHIFT, House of Friendship, YWCA, women’s crisis services, Lutherwood, the Union co-op, OneROOF and many more.

My riding is also home to Peter Jola, an ethnocultural community leader working hard to ensure that no community member is left behind. He came to Kitchener 30 years ago, fleeing violence in South Sudan, after he and his daughter were offered a flight from Irish dignitaries. Since then, he has helped his community members settle here and find a new home. We have a lot to learn from Peter and others who see the world like he does. They empathize with others struggling with mental health, addictions, poverty, disability, and religious and racial oppression.

I’m grateful to CCORIC, a committee I was on for many years; Compass; YMCA; Reception House; the multicultural centre; Sanctuary; Immigration Partnership; and so many other organizations serving newcomers in Kitchener for decades.

I’m inspired also by our tenant groups, housing advocates who are coming together to ensure no one is left behind when community members are facing renovictions by bad-acting landlords. They’ve been organizing services from the Social Development Centre and ACORN to make sure no one is left behind, including our lived experience working group—hello, Char. They want to be sure that no one is kicked out of their home. They serve as a reminder that the best way to eradicate homelessness is to prevent someone from becoming homeless. It’s leaders like this who shape the legacy that I hope to leave behind in this House.

Over the next few years, I will lead with an open heart and an open mind. As a business grad, I hope to ensure that we make good fiscal decisions, not two-year gains with long-term pains. As a former school social worker, my greatest tool is my empathy. I will hold people’s experiences with reverence, whether they’re a parent whose child dropped out of school, or they’re caring for an aging loved one, or they are someone with a disability; whether they’re facing toxic hate in our community or online; whether they’re a small business owner trying to stay afloat.

I hope to enter this chamber and every interaction with humility and compassion—and sometimes a joke; I’m Irish.

As a former city councillor, I call on us to govern with good process. Our Waterloo regional chair, Karen Redman, once said, “You measure what you value, and you change what you measure.” I hope to push for all of us to make decisions backed by data, not fear, and step into those required changes when we encounter them.

As a mother, I’m determined. I’m not just thinking of the next election cycle; I’m here for the next seven generations to come. I’m anxious and worried about my children’s future. I can tuck them in, I can buy them groceries, but I can’t look them in the eye right now and say they will have a better future than I did. That’s not okay. So I will hustle to protect water, food, air and climate for all of the generations to come after us.

I pledge to Kitchener Centre not to talk at you, but to listen. I’m not your leader. I’m your neighbour who will sit with you in a circle and carry the responsibilities you’ve entrusted me with with honour. I’ll defend our residents from harm, and I’ll make sure that no one is left behind.

To my partner, Ryan: I know we’re all making sacrifices for me to be away from you and the kids. I hope I make you proud by sharing all your nerdy optimism, taking the solutions you share with me that are in full swing across the globe, and to push for a green economy that you believe in.

To my kids: Thank you for breaking my heart in ways I never knew possible. I will work as hard as I can to ensure that you and all the children of Ontario will have a chance for a healthy future, with a roof over your head and all the tools you need to thrive.

To my fellow MPPs: I hope that together we will do no harm and that we will do everything in our power to go further together. Thank you.

Speaker, I move adjournment of the debate.

« Pétition pour augmenter les montants de l’aide sociale.

« À l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario :

« Attendu que les montants de l’aide sociale de l’Ontario sont bien en dessous du seuil de pauvreté officiel du Canada établi selon les Mesures de la pauvreté fondées sur un panier de consommation et loin d’être suffisants pour couvrir l’augmentation des coûts de la nourriture et du loyer : soit 733 $ pour les personnes bénéficiant du programme Ontario au travail (OAT) et 1 227 $ pour les personnes bénéficiant du Programme ontarien de soutien aux personnes handicapées (POSPH);

« Attendu qu’une lettre ouverte adressée au premier ministre et deux ministres du cabinet, signée par plus de 230 organisations, recommande que les montants de l’aide sociale soient doublés pour le programme OAT comme pour le POSPH;

« Attendu que la petite augmentation récente de 5 % appliquée au POSPH maintient ces citoyens en dessous du seuil de pauvreté et que les bénéficiaires de ce programme comme des personnes qui perçoivent les montants gelés du programme OAT ont de la difficulté à survivre en cette période d’inflation alarmante;

« Attendu que le gouvernement du Canada a reconnu, dans son programme de Prestation canadienne d’urgence (PCU), qu’un revenu de base de 2 000 $ par mois est le montant d’aide standard requis pour les personnes qui ont perdu leur emploi pendant la pandémie;

« Nous, soussignés, citoyens de l’Ontario, demandons à l’Assemblée législative de doubler les montants de l’aide sociale alloués aux personnes bénéficiant du programme OAT et du POSPH. »

Je veux remercier Sally Palmer pour cette pétition.

I agree wholeheartedly and will pass it on to page Isaac.

It’s my honour to read the following petition into the record. It’s entitled “Health Care: Not for Sale.” It reads, “To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontarians should get health care based on need—not the size of your wallet;

“Whereas Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones say they’re planning to privatize parts of health care;

“Whereas privatization will bleed nurses, doctors and PSWs out of our public hospitals, making the health care crisis worse;

“Whereas privatization always ends with patients getting a bill;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately stop all plans to privatize Ontario’s health care system, and fix the crisis in health care by:

“—repealing Bill 124 and recruiting, retaining, and respecting doctors, nurses and PSWs with better working conditions;

“—licensing tens of thousands of internationally educated nurses and other health care professionals already in Ontario, who wait years and pay thousands to have their credentials certified;

“—10 employer-paid sick days;

“—making education and training free or low-cost for nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals;

“—incentivizing doctors and nurses to choose to live and work in northern Ontario;

“—funding hospitals to have enough nurses on every shift, on every ward.”

I fully support this petition, will affix my signature and deliver it with page Abigail to the Clerks.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas students and education workers deserve stronger, safer schools in which to learn and work;

“Whereas the pressure placed on our education system has contributed to an increase in reports of violence in our schools;

“Whereas crowded classrooms, a lack of support for staff, and underfunding of mental health supports are all contributing to this crisis;

“Whereas the government of Ontario has the responsibility and tools to address this crisis, but has refused to act;

“Therefore, we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“Take immediate action to address violence in our schools;

“Invest in more mental health resources;

“End violence against education workers and improve workplace violence reporting.”

I fully support this petition, will affix my signature and will deliver it with page Isaac to the Clerks.

Resuming the debate adjourned on September 26, 2023, on the motion to recognize newly elected members of provincial Parliament.

I want to thank all of the Londoners who signed this petition to bring back real rent control. It reads:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the government cancelled rent control on units built after November 2018; and

“Whereas the cost to rent a home has never been higher; and

“Whereas people are being forced to leave their communities because decent, affordable homes are increasingly out of reach; and

“Whereas the Rent Control for All Tenants Act, 2022, will ensure tenants are not gouged on rent each year;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to protect tenants from predatory rent increases and pass the Rent Control for All Tenants Act to ensure renters can live in safe and affordable homes.”

I fully support this petition, affix my signature, and will send it to the table with page Matias.

I’d like to ask a question to the member from Algoma–Manitoulin. I’m just wondering if you have any concerns about access to service. We know the objective of the bill, but in practice, in northern communities, it doesn’t always look that way. I wonder if you could speak to that.

It’s always a joy to stand in my place and speak on behalf of the good people of Algoma–Manitoulin, particularly when I have to—not have to—but I’ve always been one to stand in my place in this House and give credit where credit is due, whether it’s from the opposition, whether it’s from government individuals, whether it’s from independent members, community leaders, municipalities. I think that’s a task that we have as representatives of our constituents.

And I want to give a really good, big shout-out to the community of Hornepayne, particularly, the public works manager there, Duane Gaudreau, along with Her Worship Cheryl Fort, Gail Jaremy and Jennifer Hill, who work extremely hard. And what came out of this is their community was challenged with some infrastructure challenges, particularly a very large water leak. And it took them a very long time in order to get someone to actually address and recognize the permits that were required in order to permit them to move ahead with the work. It was well over 30 days that we waited for it. And it’s through their work we managed to get it resolved.

There were some people in the community that had to be relocated. Some of them ended up in hotel rooms. Unfortunately, some of them suffer from big hardships. However, the leadership of this community came to the table and reached out to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities, Rural Ontario Municipal Association, Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, the Algoma District Municipal Association—all of them, along with FONOM—worked together in order to bring some suggestions to this government and this government acted on it. And I want give credit where credit is due, and again, for their leadership and tenacity for bringing these issues forward and the community of Hornepayne for really taking the lead on this issue and being a champion to getting this legislation brought forward.

And I know, initially, the member—his riding escapes me; the member was a PA at that point in time—from Sarnia–Lambton. I want to give him a shout-out as well for having listened to the community and those individuals who brought that issue forward and bringing it as a PA in order to have the legislation that we have in front of us here today and being an instrument of change as well. So I always give credit where credit is due. Shout-out to you, Hornepayne.

Further questions?

Mr. McCarthy has moved third reading of Bill 153, An Act to amend the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, 2012. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

Be it resolved that the bill do now pass and be entitled as in the motion.

Third reading agreed to.

Mr. Mantha moved second reading of the following bill:

Bill 13, An Act to enact the Northern Health Travel Grant Advisory Committee Act, 2024 / Projet de loi 13, Loi édictant la Loi de 2024 sur le Comité consultatif des subventions aux résidents du Nord de l’Ontario pour frais de transport à des fins médicales.

My question to the member, then, would be—as a former municipal member, I certainly saw a lot of challenges with this process, with a number of processes around construction. When we look at all of these, when we see a bill like this that is looking to improve a structure, to improve a system that provides for safety for all types of development, whether that be big construction companies or a guy working in his backyard, do you think that this bill will achieve that goal?

You know what? I want to thank the member for asking that question, because part of the consultation that did happen within the government—there were some strong suggestions that were provided by many of those municipal leaders, and particularly the community of Hornepayne. One of those is to actually “set up a system where local contractors can respond to locate requests”—that was one—“Hydro One to consider completing the locates in house”—instead of contracting it out to other firms.

The other two were, “Ontario One Call to employ a better complaint process, one which elicits results and has a mandatory response time”—because that was one of the issues that we’re having: these extensive waiting periods in order to get the locates done. And the other one, which I thought was really important, is, “Open up a second call centre in the north” to remove the barriers that divide all the requests that are being done.

These were constructive suggestions that were given to the government. It’s nice to see that some of them were implemented and some of them were moved upon. But again, there are very big challenges in northern Ontario. The stress that was being put by the many associations in northern Ontario is, recognize the geographical challenges that we have in northern Ontario by providing us with a second locate office.

Again, I give credit where credit is due. We needed something to change. This is a step. Let’s see if the work that needs to be done now is actually going to materialize positively so that the economies of communities aren’t affected, the complaints of individuals are addressed, people are not put in undue hardship, are not moved out of their homes—

I will be speaking about the Northern Health Travel Grant and its importance to residents, but first, I would like to paint a picture of the realities that hospitals, individuals, organizations and service providers are facing in northern Ontario.

Just recently—actually, this morning, during question period—I put a question to the government in regard to the need for action from this government for funding for northern hospitals. The Ministry of Health has directed northern hospitals to keep services open at any cost and to implement millions of dollars in initiatives without upfront funding. This includes millions of capital and staffing dollars spent on Meditech Expanse that hospitals paid out of their own budgets. Twenty-four hospitals are expecting year-end deficits totalling more than $74 million, which includes $43 million in agency staffing costs. Twelve hospitals are projecting deficits greater than 10%.

Emergency department closures are becoming the norm. Lines of credit are being used in order to meet payroll and responsibilities by hospitals. Hospitals are looking at their providers’ bills and invoices at the end of the month, making a determination as to which ones they’re going to be paying. Cash advances are becoming more increasingly difficult to obtain, because financial institutions are losing trust that the government will get money to hospitals in time.

Speaker, there’s more. I also spoke this morning in regard to the Auditor General’s annual report. The report found that ER wait times remain too long, lack of nursing staff to quickly triage patients leads to longer delays, lack of primary care has created backlogs in ERs. Two hundred unplanned ER closures at 23 hospitals were recorded between 2022 and 2023, largely due to staffing issues. Without locum coverage, this would have expanded to 600 closures. Northern hospitals are increasingly reliant on agency nursing, costing up to three times more for hospitals to deliver services. Numerous patients are waiting for long-term care and home care services, taking up hospital beds. The ministry does not have a strategy for ER closures or for northern Ontario health care issues. The locum incentive program ends on March 31, with nothing coming from this government in regard to the challenges that will present to the hospitals.

There are approximately 10,000 de-rostered patients in Algoma as of last July, in 2023. Recently, another 10,000 are without a family doctor in Sault Ste. Marie. In the Sudbury/Espanola/Manitoulin/Elliot Lake area, 13,000 are without a family doctor. That’s the reality of what we’re facing in many communities across northern Ontario.

Now I want to get back to the importance of what the travel grant does and how it helps people in northern Ontario. Briefly, for background for any of the members—because I was surprised; I’m a little bit lonely in my corner here today, but many of the members were actually not aware of what the Northern Health Travel Grant Program does for northerners. The Northern Health Travel Grant was established in 1980 to aid patients who live in northern Ontario and who must travel for specialized medical treatment or diagnostics. It reimburses patients based on the distance they travel to their appointment and for overnight accommodation.

Doing this is necessary to ensure that people living in northern Ontario can get the care they need without financial barriers in access to health care. It’s necessary because we face different realities in northern Ontario when it comes to health care. Most of our specialized treatment and diagnostic services are in large urban centres. For ridings like mine, where it is almost entirely small, rural communities, patients must travel large distances to get to their appointments. Depending on the time of year, you might have to get to the city your appointment is in the day before to make sure you can get there on time. You travel on northern roads, and our roads close very often due to poor winter road maintenance, or you may have to stay there overnight afterwards.

All these costs add up, so on top of the stress and hardship of your treatment, you must also add the burden of travel and all the associated costs. That makes the Northern Health Travel Grant essential to people in my riding and across northern Ontario. It takes away the added stress of, “How am I going to get to or from my appointments that are hundreds of kilometres away from my home?”

However, my office has been hearing for years that the grant is not keeping up with the cost of travel in northern Ontario. Not only that, the policies and requirements to get the reimbursement are painfully complicated and slow. I want to take a couple of minutes to read into the record some of the words that constituents have shared with me in regard to how the travel grant challenges have affected them.

Roxanne Goulet, who is a nurse on Manitoulin Island, wrote to my office saying, “Living in rural northern Ontario has presented many challenges for our family members across specialized health care and diagnostics. We are required to travel the minimum of three and a half hours, round trip, weather depending, to access necessary medical treatment only available at the larger Sudbury city hospital site.

“In addition to the distance travelled, there are also extensive wait times, parking fees and sometimes overnight accommodation requirements. The increased fuel prices have surpassed any cost benefit the Northern Health Travel Grant Program allows for, leaving me out of pocket. The onerous wait times of three-plus months for the processing of a grant adds to the impact of one’s monthly budget and all other living expenses.”

Here’s another one from Richard and Jane Gulka from Manitouwadge: “Richard required medical treatment at a facility in Mississauga, five days a week for approximately two hours daily, which left him extremely tired and weak for several hours. We submitted a claim for one round trip by automobile, accommodation for the duration of the six weeks and two trips by Uber to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.

“My husband has been dealing with an illness for three years, necessitating diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care out of our community. Richard is physically tired, emotionally drained, and we are both extremely stressed. Our initial submission for a round trip was $863.46 and accommodation of $3,995, and the total reimbursement was $1,413.46. He was denied the outstanding balance because we didn’t fit the program protocol of returning home, 12 hours away, on days of non-treatment.”

Florie Maeck from North Bay: “I live in North Bay, Ontario, and I have to travel to Sudbury every few months to see an ophthalmologist and every three months to see a physiatrist who holds Botox injection clinics for movement disorders. I receive $60 from the Northern Health Travel Grant service for these visits. There have been a couple of visits where I have received nothing, and there is no response from the travel grant agency when you try to address the issue. I must rely on a family member to take me. This grant money does not cover a tank of gas to and from these appointments. We seldom eat. I cannot afford a meal for two of us. Forty-one cents per kilometre does not cut it anymore.”

Marina Verdonk from Sault Ste. Marie: “I had to stay at a hotel for three nights in Toronto, and even at the hotel’s medical rate, the cost was $500. The Northern Health Travel Grant only covers $250. I had to fly last minute to Toronto at a cost of $851.17 and was reimbursed $533 to cover my flight. Meals are not covered in any way, and with the cost of eating out or even ordering in, even one meal can cost you $20 to $30. I’ve even resorted to taking coupons with me to eat at McDonald’s in Toronto. Any taxi, from and to the airport, to the hospital or from the hotel, is not taken into consideration. Since I have to travel every three weeks and it takes about eight weeks to obtain a reimbursement, I’m having difficulties making ends meet.”

The last one that I have here is from Marguerite Collin, from Sudbury: “I appreciate you answering me. I am currently travelling to Barrie for nerve block injections for chronic migraines, upper back pain and neck. I am going to the Simcoe pain clinic because the Sudbury chronic pain clinic is a three-year wait for the same treatment. Originally, my rheumatologist in Barrie referred me there because of the wait times in Sudbury. Because she is not a northern doctor, they denied the travel grant. I got my GP in Sudbury to refer me to the Simcoe plain clinic, so now they are denying me only because the doctor is a GP. I work with the city of Greater Sudbury and most recently had to take a leave of absence due to my stress and migraines of this. I am unsure if I will be able to even travel next week because of the money it’s costing me. My family of five is really suffering financially.”

Speaker, there are endless stories that I could bring to the floor of the Legislature. What I’m asking this government to consider is establishing a table where we can bring individuals and have a discussion and make recommendations in order to improve the Northern Health Travel Grant.

In my supplementary, I will be touching on a group that I just met this afternoon, which I hadn’t heard of. Only just recently, through a CBC article, I’ve heard of Hope Air. I will be talking about them in the additional time that I’m provided.

This is long overdue—long overdue. The last substantive change that has happened to the Northern Health Travel Grant was back in 2017. I think this is something that we can all agree upon: that care, regardless of where you are in this province, should be something that is provided. There should be no barriers to getting individuals to the care that they need. We pride ourselves on the health care system that we have, and we need to share that pride with those that are being affected and those that absolutely need the care that is needed.

So again, I am proud to present this bill here to the floor, and I look forward to the many discussions and points that I look to hear from the government, the opposition and some of my independent colleagues.

To the member from Algoma–Manitoulin: Northern members for years have been talking about the disconnect around timing around receiving information about locates. We heard from the member from Nicklel Belt that often, northern constituents make the call to dig responsibly to make sure that it’s safe to do so. But in turn, it takes so long to get that information back. Would you like to comment on that?

On a point of order: Speaker, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to see the clock at 6.

Further debate?

I would like to thank the member from Algoma–Manitoulin for this bill. It’s a very important bill, and it certainly matters to people in Thunder Bay–Superior North, where I am. I think the problems with the inadequacy of the Northern Health Travel Grant keep the people in my office very, very busy.

The amount for kilometres is 41 cents a kilometre. It hasn’t been adjusted since 2007. I think the hotel amount was adjusted in 2017, but there are very few places—I believe the hotel amount is a $100 a night but only to a maximum of $500. We know it costs an awful lot more than that to stay in a hotel these days.

I’ve got a few specific examples. For seniors in Greenstone—Greenstone is 250 kilometres, I think, from Thunder Bay, and the cost of travelling to Thunder Bay for seniors is something that they worry about quite a bit.

I was actually just up in Greenstone and met with a group of seniors, and the Northern Health Travel Grant was the top of the list for their concerns. People can take a van from Greenstone or from Geraldton to Thunder Bay for $350, but the Northern Health Travel Grant only covers $184, not including hotel accommodation. Imagine if you have to travel regularly to Thunder Bay for dialysis; the cost is going to be in the thousands of dollars. In fact, a couple from Kenora—this was an issue a few months ago—had to stay in Thunder Bay over an extended period of time. Well, it was cheaper to actually rent an apartment than stay in a hotel, but it still cost them $9,000 to cover their dialysis treatments.

I recently heard from a constituent in my riding who is now out $20,000 because they had to travel from Thunder Bay to Toronto for a kidney transplant at the Toronto General Hospital. This required staying in a hotel from November 21 until checkout on January 6. They’re actually only eligible for $555 for accommodations. Then, there was of course the travel and so on, which was very high, partly because of the medical condition and having to sit in first class and so on to accommodate that condition.

The thing is that we are supposed to have equal access to the health care that we need where we live, and if we have to travel to get it, then the support needs to be there so that we can have equitable access to health care. The set-up of the Northern Health Travel Grant doesn’t meet those needs at this time, so I think the recommendation to have a table to actually really work out what’s going on and how people can be supported is important. I support the motion, and I would like to pass things over to my colleague from Sudbury to add.

I want to thank the member from Algoma–Manitoulin for bringing forward this bill. I had asked a question about the Northern Health Travel Grant last spring, and I had more phone calls and emails to my office through the spring and the summer about this than any other issue that I brought up that I can think of.

The core issue, really, here is that when you are travelling from northern Ontario—my riding, often—to Toronto, you’re compensated 41 cents a kilometre, but you’re not paid for the first 100 kilometres that you travel. We know the cost of gas and maintenance on vehicles as well. It really doesn’t add up for people. As well, the hotel costs are capped at $100 a night; we can’t find a hotel for $100 a night. Those of us who travel long distances and have residence here know how expensive it is to live in Toronto, and anyone who is coming to Toronto for all the amazing tourist attractions they have or for work knows how expensive lodging is.

I want to share a couple of validators for this. I think it’s important to talk about why this is important, so I’ll tell you about a woman from my riding who had to travel to Toronto for knee surgery. What’s interesting, Speaker, is depending how many of the validators you talk to, you’ll see many of them didn’t want me to use their name, because they feel like—they’re embarrassed. They feel like it’s a poverty issue and they feel stigmatized because they don’t have access to health care. So, I’m going to call this woman “Betty.” She had come down to Toronto for knee surgery. Betty made the trip down to Toronto. She had the surgery, then she applied for the grant and was denied.

Here’s what happened: Betty doesn’t have a credit card. Her husband has a credit card, so her husband paid for everything on credit card. Her husband came with her to take care of her on this trip for the knee surgery. When she filled out the form, she was told to put her name on the forms because she had the surgery. Betty can prove that they’re married and Betty can prove that her husband came with her, but she was still denied.

And here’s the kicker for them: They’re out-of-pocket for all of those expenses—expenses that people who are in the area and can travel to a Toronto hospital, because of where they were born or where they moved and lived, wouldn’t be out of. But the kicker for her is that she asked why she was denied and what was happening, and it took 12 weeks to get a response—12 weeks of trying to figure out what happened to the money and why it wasn’t reimbursed.

I want to talk about Stephan and Denise. Now, Stephan and Denise—I actually asked a question about them last spring. I want to read what Denise wrote to me, outside of the question, because I had to really shorten it for the question. Denise wrote and she said that her husband is required to see a specialized neurologist in Toronto. The current reimbursement for two nights’ accommodation is $100 per night. When you look at hotel rooms in Toronto, on average, the cost of the rooms starts at about $500 a night. Even the hospital rates have doubled. Two years ago, the hospital rate at the DoubleTree hotel was $129. So even two years ago, you paid 30 bucks out of your own pocket. Now, it’s up to $250. Mileage is also an issue. Compensation is limited at 41 cents per kilometre, and the first 100 kilometres is deducted from being compensated.

“We’re both seniors. We both live on a fixed income.” This is the issue that we’re seeing. The system is designed so that you pay up front, but if you’re on a fixed income, like many seniors are—and many seniors have those co-morbidities, need more care. When you’re on a fixed income and you can’t afford to pay up front, if you don’t have a credit card, you’re very limited. You don’t have that equity of access when it comes to health care.

The next person I’m going to talk about I’m going to call Bev. She asked me as well not to use her name. Bev had to travel to Toronto for cancer treatments. It was complex, and she had to do various diagnoses. Bev has cancer, and her husband has taken a leave from work to care for her, so there’s no income coming in from her husband. There’s just Bev’s income, and she has CPP. Between her and her husband, their income is $1,100 per month to make ends meet.

Bev’s oncologist is in Toronto. He’s one of only two in the province that specializes in this type of surgery. Absolutely, congratulations to our province for having specialized health care available. What we’re talking about is having people able to access it in the north. So Bev had to come down, see her oncologist in-person. She couldn’t travel alone. She would have to be in Toronto for three days for tests and the appointment. Bev and her husband had no funds to pay for the hotels. They had no funds to buy food. They had no funds to put gas in their car. They had $1,100 a month at the time.

Bev told me—and this is one of the reasons that she asked me not to use her name—they didn’t even have food in their house at this time. Bev’s doctor offered discount options for accommodations, but because Bev didn’t have the money up front to pay for it, she was out of luck. Because the Northern Health Travel Grant is a system where you pay up front and then you’re reimbursed, Bev and her husband are out of luck.

The question is, if you can’t pay up front, if you can’t afford the wait to reimburse—we know there are a lot of people living hand to mouth. We know that every year since 2018, the number of full-time working people accessing food banks—that number continues to grow. We know there are the working poor out there. The working poor also get sick. The working poor also need specialized treatment in health care, and they deserve to have that access to health care.

It’s about equity of care. People shouldn’t have to go without care because they don’t have the funds up front to travel where health care is. The member for Algoma–Manitoulin is talking about a simple solution of putting our heads together and figuring out where this is broken and fixing it. I believe the Conservative side—I’m a critic; it’s in my title. But I believe the Conservative side wants to address this. I believe they want people in the north to have access to health care. They have members in the north. They wouldn’t want to vote against those members and the access that they have.

With the limited time I have left, I’m going to talk about a gentleman who also asked me not to share his name because he was embarrassed at the situation he was in. I’m going to call him Gary. So Gary had to receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and this is a treatment that has to get done daily over the course of several weeks. This is covered by OHIP, but the facilities don’t exist in Sudbury. So Gary’s specialist, who was in Sudbury, referred the treatment to Toronto, and Gary travelled and stayed in Toronto for several weeks. But his Northern Health Travel Grant was denied.

We helped Gary with his appeal. We started helping him in March 2021. The good news is that it was eventually resolved in his favour, but I want to remind you of the people who don’t have the money up front or how tight finances are. And each and every one of us can relate to this, either personally or members of our family or close friends of ours who feel that squeeze, the affordability squeeze that so many people are feeling.

The bad news is, even though it was resolved in his favour, it took more than a year. We started in March 2021, and it ended in March 2022 for him to be reimbursed—more than a year of paying out of pocket for several weeks of accommodations, food and travel. I don’t know who could weather that storm. You’re trying to recover from an injury. You’re trying to recover from illness. You’re getting treatment. The mental stress of not knowing how you’re going to pay your bills or if you’ll be reimbursed is unbelievable, unfathomable.

I know that this is a good bill. I want to congratulate again the member from Algoma–Manitoulin for bringing this forward. This is a common-sense solution to something. I’m sure there was a time when this worked. Nothing is ever perfect, but I’m sure there was a time where this was more effective. Time has moved on. Costs have moved on. We haven’t kept pace with it. This is a good opportunity to recognize how important the people of Ontario are and how we can really help them.

The final example—I have about a minute—is Stephen. Stephen is actually his real name. He’s on a fixed income. He applied for the Northern Health Travel Grant. Typically, you’re reimbursed in about four to six weeks; it’s been more than three months. He hasn’t received anything. He called the Northern Health Travel Grant office to find out what was going on. They said they have a backlog and that processing his claim will take longer than the six weeks it normally takes, but they couldn’t give him a date when.

This is a broken system, Speaker. We need to address it. The member for Algoma–Manitoulin has a very simple solution, about putting our heads together, working together, which I think the people of Ontario want us to do, where we can address this, fix this and make health care better for people across northern Ontario.

Further debate?

It’s a pleasure to stand in the House today and take part in the debate about Bill 13, the Northern Health Travel Grant Advisory Committee Act. Frankly, it’s nice to hear that there’s a Liberal member who has accepted that the north is not just a no man’s land that people shouldn’t pay attention to, that it’s important, so it was nice to hear that from the member opposite.

This proposed legislation seeks to establish yet another advisory committee to have further discussions, while our government is taking decisive action to improve the health care system for northern families. That’s what we’re focused on for families in the north and for families across Ontario. We know that patients can’t afford delays or more talk or endless committees and that it’s time to get it done for families in northern Ontario and across Ontario, and that’s exactly what we’re doing, while ensuring that all of our health care initiatives are actually delivering care to patients. That’s what we’re here for. While the opposition and independent members continue to be all talk or all about talk, our government is busy getting it done.

Speaker, many residents of northern Ontario live in communities that have less than 2,500 people, are dispersed across a vast geographical area in our province and may need to travel longer distances to access specific types of health care services. The province currently provides eligible patients with financial assistance, helping defray medical-related travel costs that residents of northern Ontario incur to access certain health care services. This financial assistance is based on travel that is required to access a medical specialist or ministry-funded health-care-facility-based procedures when they are not available in their local communities within a radius of 100 kilometres.

Speaker, the Northern Health Travel Grant is an important element in the delivery of equitable health care services to northern Ontario residents. In 2022-23, the Ministry of Health reviewed more than 178,000 applications for financial assistance, with the ministry providing almost $45 million in financial travel assistance to more than 66,000 residents of northern Ontario. In 2023-24, the ministry’s funding allocation for the Northern Health Travel Grant Program is more than $48 million, and the ministry regularly reviews its programs, processes and procedures to support ongoing quality improvement and support a sustainable system for the future.

The ministry has enhanced the accommodation allowance and has established payment delivery through electronic bank deposits, providing more convenience for residents, and the program’s call desk works with applicants who submit incomplete applications to help them with missing information. We have streamlined the administrative process for ODSP clients, and work continues to improve the program, including developing an online application program for applicants. Additionally, the program has a medical appeals committee through which external and independent medical advisers review appeals and claims with exceptional medical circumstances.

Speaker, our government is making health care more connected and more convenient, and providing Ontarians with a better health care experience at every stage of life, no matter where they live in the province. We continue working hard to implement our plan to improve access to health care in northern communities by supporting medical education in the north and training more physicians to work in northern communities.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine is being provided with additional medical resident training positions to ensure an ongoing supply of physicians in the north. The Northern and Rural Recruitment and Retention Initiative helps patients receive primary and specialist care closer to home, offering assistance to close to 130 communities, providing financial recruitment incentives to an eligible family physician or medical specialist who establishes a full-time practice in an eligible community.

Through the Community Commitment Program for Nurses, between 2022 and 2024, over 650 of the nurses placed with employers in need have been hired in northern Ontario, and in northern communities, the Emergency Department Locum Program has provided supports to eligible hospitals to assist with 24/7 emergency department services. The Emergency Department Peer-to-Peer Program is also supporting emergency department physicians in northern, rural and remote communities through access to immediate, on-demand and real-time coaching and support via virtual channels from experienced physician peers.

The government is also reviewing and expanding Ornge air ambulance’s fixed-wing fleet from eight to 12, with a new state-of-the-art aircraft, as well as a new larger Sudbury air base to house the additional four aircraft, ensuring it can continue to provide safe, consistent air ambulance services, which are especially important for northern communities.

We’ve invested in annual operational funding for new MRI machines in northern, rural and smaller communities, and our government made changes to allow pharmacists to treat and prescribe medications for 19 common medical ailments, including UTIs, pink eye, cold sores and acne, for example. More than 700,000 assessments have taken place over the last year, with 94% of Ontario pharmacies participating in this initiative, including many across northern Ontario.

These are just a few examples of how our government is actually taking action to provide more connected and convenient care and supporting the health care needs of people in northern Ontario.

We know that there are different health care challenges in various parts of the province and understand how important it is to have a regional voice on these matters. Ontario Health regions will continue to work and consult with local communities, and our government will continue to listen—and I must say, we have listened here today to what our colleagues have shared with us today. We want to work closely with those on the front lines of our health care system, as well: our doctors, nurses and other care providers. This is an essential part in determining how best to provide care and meet the local health care needs of northern families where and when they need it.

Further debate?

It’s a pleasure to rise in the chamber today to speak on an issue of paramount importance to people in Ontario, to patients in Ontario and especially the northern and rural communities in our province.

I speak today, of course, as the member of provincial Parliament for Don Valley East, but also has an emergency and family physician that has worked throughout the province, and in particular, for a large part of my career, in northern, rural and remote Ontario. I can say first-hand, from having helped my patients, helped to navigate them through this process, I can speak to the urgent and pressing need for us to look at how we can improve it, because if we don’t, it will, unfortunately, impact clinical care and patient outcomes.

I want to start by outlining the five principles of medicare: comprehensiveness, universal, portable, publicly administered and accessible. It doesn’t matter if we have the best health care in the world in Toronto or in Ottawa; if you live in Moose Factory and can’t access it, we are not honouring the spirit of the Canada Health Act—frankly, the letter of the law, of the Canada Health Act—until we make sure that health care in our province is accessible.

What we know right now, based upon the Auditor General’s report on northern hospitals just released about two and a half months ago, on December 6, 2023: There is a significant imbalance in health care access between the north and the south. Not only that, the Auditor General identified that that significant imbalance is only expected to accelerate because of worsening staffing shortages. And yet, even going beyond that, the pressing need to address the Northern Health Travel Grant is only more relevant as we face in our province an affordability crisis, as we face a government that has introduced repeated waves of legislation that will centralize a variety of government services, including, under Bill 60, health care services that will drain surgeries and health care access from rural communities into urban communities.

And then, of course—and very relevant to something that just happened—as we see the growing spectre of climate change, that will make it more difficult for people to travel. We just learned a week or two ago that a number of northern communities declared a state of emergency because their ice roads are melting. When I worked in Moose Factory, those ice roads were a vital pipeline for patients to be able to come down to Moose Factory and continue their travel onto other places. For all of these reasons, we can expect that the travel, which is already expensive, will only become more expensive.

The people of our great north are not an afterthought. They have value. They contribute immensely to our history, our culture, our heritage and our province’s prosperity, and they need to be treated as such. When they can’t get access to the health care that they need, this is what happens: They don’t apply for the grants, because they don’t believe that they’re going to get it, and their health suffers. They apply and they’re denied, so their health suffers. Or they apply, they’re denied, and they appeal, and eventually, they’re approved, but in the process, their health suffers. Their health outcomes go down, and it ultimately becomes more expensive for all of us.

What the member from Algoma–Manitoulin has proposed is very fair. There is no reason that anyone could possibly disagree with this. He’s not saying, by some edict, let’s give everyone $10,000 or $100,000—no. He’s saying, let’s strike a committee that will look at the challenges that northern communities and northern patients face right now and look at ways, through those consultations, to improve the Northern Health Travel Grant. For a government that says that it is for the people, there could be no better suggestion for how to improve that health travel grant than by speaking to the people.

We have a grant that is well-intentioned. I can tell you from my own clinical experience working with a large number of patients throughout northern Ontario that the grant isn’t meeting their needs. We have a very reasonable proposal to show the patients of northern Ontario and rural Ontario that they are not an afterthought. I hope everyone can support this.