I love these questions because it gives me an opportunity to talk about the investments that our government, under Premier Ford, has been able to make in primary care multidisciplinary teams—78 new or expanded primary care teams, multidisciplinary teams, which means doctors working with nurse practitioners, working with nurses, with dietitians, with mental health workers. It is historic that we have seen this investment and, respectfully, the investments are happening across Ontario: 78 different teams in Toronto, in Ottawa, in Orillia. Where we see the need, we have made those investments, a tripling of the investment that we announced under our Your Health plan.

But having said that, we’ve already made changes. The expanded scope of practice that we have announced and embarked on, particularly in pharmacies—we now have over 800,000 people who are accessing their local community pharmacist to deal with minor ailments. Those are changes that our government has been able to put in, working with our partners. We’ve expanded scope of practice for nurse practitioners. We’ve expanded scope of practice for RNs. And we continue to do that work because we know people need to be able to see the appropriate clinician, depending on the issues and illnesses that they’re dealing with.

Speaker, numbers matter. It would have been over 200 new physicians in the province of Ontario.

We are actively working with our partners like the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. A single ministerial directive letter ensured that internationally educated graduates who are waiting and want to practise in the province of Ontario have that opportunity. The direction was to quickly assess, review, and when appropriate, license people who are waiting to practise in the province of Ontario. We’ll continue to get the work done. Thank you.

There is no doubt, when these catastrophic events happen, that we all need to work together. The member opposite knows that this was a federal nursing station. We will absolutely be there as a provincial partner, but we have to make sure that all of us are working together for the people of Cat Lake. Thank you.

Everything that our government is doing is prioritizing the patient. Whether it is expanding scope of practice for clinicians who are already trained and ready to step up and do additional work, like pharmacists, like nurse practitioners, like registered nurses, we are working directly with them.

And I would say, when we have historic investments of $110 million in 78 primary care expansions, including one in the member’s own region of a nurse practitioner-led clinic, we are making those investments.

Will the member opposite stand up, support those expansions, support that nurse practitioner-led clinic that is going to be able to expand and offer new services and additional patients in your region?

Today, I’d like to welcome some amazing people from our ag and food industry, and specifically representatives from the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, the Ontario SPCA, Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario, Ontario Veterinary College, Colleges Ontario, ROMA, Equine Guelph, Ontario Goat, Ontario Association of Bovine Practitioners and the Rural Ontario Institute. Welcome to the House. We have a great afternoon ahead of us.

Mr. Saunderson moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill Pr40, An Act to revive 1000151830 Ontario Inc.