My question is to the Minister of Health. Niagara is a senior community with higher health needs, so it is concerning that our family doctor crisis is blooming from bad to worse.

Since June, residents in Niagara without a family doctor have grown from 53,000 to 73,000. That number is expected to double by 2026. St. Catharines alone needs 51 doctors right now. Family physicians alarm bell wasn’t just rung, it is blaring.

Despite promises, St. Catharines’s health teams see no base funding boost to support our already stretched, aging doctors. They are overworked, underpaid and buried in red tape. When will you halt the doctor drain and prioritize St. Catharines and seniors across Niagara?

Speaker, you will know that we have made considerable investments in the Niagara region—not, of course, without a lot of advocacy from the member from Niagara West, Sam Oosterhoff.

It is very exciting to see the expansion, the build, the groundbreaking, which, by the way, your member that you sit beside actually attended and acknowledged was great news for South Niagara with the South Niagara Hospital—a multi-million-dollar investment in Niagara region.

The member opposite continues to ignore the fact that as we make those expansions, as we ensure that through a $110-million investment in primary care expansion—which, by the way—facts matter—includes an increase to the base of the existing health care teams.

Interjections.

Niagara Centre.

Why would the government come forward with a bill that does some important things but doesn’t adequately fund so that those things can actually happen?