To respond, the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health and the member for Eglinton–Lawrence.

The member for Eglinton–Lawrence.

The parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health, the member for Eglinton–Lawrence.

I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this debate. To my colleague the member for Eglinton–Lawrence: I’d like to thank her for her remarks, as she has discussed how our government is prioritizing health care in northern Ontario by continuing to take bold action.

Our government does recognize the residents of northern Ontario and what they face with some unique health care realities. That is why we continue to provide financial assistance that is dedicated to northern Ontario residents. We are taking action for northern families instead of just talking or outright ignoring the needs of the north, as previous governments have done.

I would like to further speak about how our government is strengthening health care for northern Ontario residents and helping address their health needs. Effective, integrated models of care, as exemplified by the Ontario health teams, are critical to providing more convenient and connected health services in northern communities.

In July of last year, our government approved three more Ontario health teams in northern Ontario: the Équipe Santé Ontario Cochrane District Ontario Health Team, as well as the Elliot Lake Ontario health team, both serving Greater Sudbury, Sudbury East, Espanola, Manitoulin, Elliot Lake and surrounding areas, and the Timiskaming area Ontario health team, serving the Timiskaming district and surrounding region.

Last month, our government took another important step forward to strengthen local services in the north with the approval of the West Parry Sound Ontario Health Team, which marked a significant milestone of achieving full provincial Ontario health team coverage, with a total of 58 Ontario health teams operating in every corner of this great province.

These Ontario health teams bring together a wide variety of health care providers from across health and community sectors, including primary care, hospitals, home and community care, and mental health and addiction services, to better serve patients. Working together, these teams break down barriers, connecting people to care by ensuring a seamless transition from one provider to another, with one patient record and one care plan being shared between the providers.

We’re supporting Ontario health teams to take the next step to ensuring better coordinated care by moving the responsibility of connecting people to home care services to Ontario health teams. This is starting in 2025.

Mental health and addiction challenges are also an additional key issue facing our communities. Our government continues to make important investments, making it easier and faster for Ontarians, including in the north, to connect to high-quality and evidence-based mental health and addictions services and supports. This includes establishing eight new youth wellness hubs over this past year, with 22 hubs launched since 2020, with several of these hubs supporting young people in northern communities like Sault Ste. Marie, Kenora, Sudbury and Timmins.

We’ve significantly expanded the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program, including through providers in Sudbury and Thunder Bay, to provide more convenient mental health care. Through the Addictions Recovery Fund, 53% of the new addictions beds will be located in northern communities, supporting the creation of 204 addictions beds in northern Ontario.

Speaker, I’d also like to talk to the latest announcement, with the $110-million investment for inter-professional primary care teams that we announced earlier this month. Northern Ontario residents will further benefit from expanded timely access to primary care. Specifically, in northern Ontario, nearly $6 million of this investment will serve more than 37,000 net new patients.

I just want to talk to some of the applicants and the locations, given the members from the north here described these areas: in Moosonee and James Bay coast, Weeneebayko Area Health Authority; in Sudbury District, French River, the Centre de santé Univi Health Centre; in Manitoulin Island, Northeastern Manitoulin FHT, Manitoulin Central FHT, Municipality of Assiginack FHT; as well as in Wawa, the Wawa Family Health Team; in Timmins as well as Chapleau—many of these areas.

Speaker, we know that people stay healthier for longer with this primary care service and with faster diagnosis and treatment as well as more consistent support managing their day-to-day health, while relieving pressures on emergency departments and walk-in clinics. We will continue to work—

I want to thank the members from Eglinton–Lawrence and Newmarket–Aurora. I wasn’t surprised with the responses that I got from the government. Unfortunately, you didn’t listen to the picture that I painted of the realities of what’s happening with our health care system in northern Ontario, and that’s too bad.

The member for Don Valley and the member for Thunder Bay, thank you for your comments. To the member from Sudbury, you’re absolutely right; it is about equity of care.

I want to read the mandate here in the short amount of time that I have. The mandate is “to make recommendations for improving the facilitation of reasonable access to health” care “services for people in northern Ontario by means of reasonable, realistic and efficient reimbursement for travel costs.” It’s not just the reimbursement; it’s also the delivery of these services.

What the member from Newmarket–Aurora just spoke about with the enhancement to the family health teams—we welcome that, but it doesn’t require a travel grant. This is the problem. If we look at the reimbursement in the delivery of the Northern Health Travel Grant, there are things that we want to change.

I’ll give you a perfect example: On the delivery, if you look at a community like Espanola or White River, they’re just on the outside of that 100-kilometre diameter. If you live in White River, God forbid if you look at the price of gas. If you have to drive to Wawa to meet up with a specialist there, you need that travel grant, but guess what? You’re not going to get it. Because if you’re in White River or in Espanola, and you have to travel to Sudbury or Sault Ste. Marie, you won’t get it; you don’t qualify.

These are the types of discussions that we need to have, where we can bring the health care professionals, bring the service providers to start talking about what we need to do as far as improving the delivery and the equity of care. I touched a little bit on let’s bring Hope Air as well, as far as how we can make them a partner in providing the care that we need and getting people to timely specialist appointments. This is something simple—