“Whereas tenants are finding it difficult to pay constantly rising rents; and

“Whereas consecutive Conservative and Liberal governments sat idle, while housing costs spiralled out of control, speculators made fortunes, and families had to put their hopes on hold;

“Whereas every Ontarian should have access to safe, affordable housing, whether a family wants to rent or own; live in a house, an apartment, a condominium or a co-op, they should have affordable options;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately prioritize the repair of Ontario’s social housing stock, commit to building new affordable homes, crack down on housing speculators, and make rentals more affordable through real rent controls and updated legislation.”

Speaker, I agree with this petition. I’ve signed it, and I’ll give to the page Bhavneet.

“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 further privatize Ontario’s health care system, and fix the crisis in health care by:...

“—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;”

—bring in “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 agree with this petition. I have signed it and I give to it page Korel to submit.

I thank Linda Benoit from Foleyet in my riding for these petitions.

“Let’s Fix the Northern Health Travel Grant....

“Whereas people in the north are not getting the same access to health care because of the high cost of travel and accommodations;

“Whereas by refusing to raise the Northern Health Travel Grant (NHTG) rates, the Ford government is putting a massive burden on northern Ontarians who are sick;

“Whereas gas prices cost more in northern Ontario;”

They petition the Legislative Assembly as follows:

“To establish a committee with a mandate to fix and improve the NHTG;

“This NHTG advisory committee would bring together health care providers in the north, as well as recipients of the NHTG to make recommendations to the Minister of Health that would improve access to health care in northern Ontario through adequate reimbursement of travel costs.”

I fully support this petition. I will affix my name and ask my good page, Jack, to bring it to the Clerk.

I’m pleased to present the following motion on behalf of the official opposition:

Whereas 2.2 million Ontarians currently do not have a family physician and are not connected to primary care, which puts their health at imminent risk; and

Whereas access to primary health care keeps people out of emergency rooms; and

Whereas primary health care providers need sustainable resources in order to maintain capacity to deliver primary care, mental health care, chronic disease management, community supports, and innovative services that help end hallway health care; and

Whereas hiring additional staff support could free up Ontario’s primary care providers to take on an estimated additional two million patients;

Therefore, the Legislative Assembly calls on the Ontario government to urgently implement a strategy to increase the number of staff support for primary care providers so they can spend their time treating patients instead of doing paperwork.

The Leader of the Opposition has moved opposition day number 2.

To lead off the debate, I recognize the leader of His Majesty’s loyal opposition.

There’s no denying, I think, that Ontario’s health care system is deeply frayed. More than—we often say 2.2 million, but the numbers are actually increasing daily; we’re now up to more than 2.3 million, in fact, since I introduced this motion, who are currently without a family doctor.

Primary care providers and community health centres across the province are overwhelmingly understaffed, and all of us here in this room know exactly what that has led to: crowded emergency rooms; excruciatingly long wait times; overworked, underpaid health care workers who are exiting the community health sector, exiting health care faster than we can ever recruit and retain them; seniors, kids, vulnerable Ontarians being left to wonder if they’re going to get the care they need when they need it.

Along with those critically low staffing levels, Ontario’s health care system is also seeing a wave of physicians retire. Currently, 1.7 million people in the province of Ontario are looked after by a doctor who is 65 or older. Let that sink in. How did the members across the aisle not see that one coming? Doctors are human too. New Democrats have been sounding the alarm on this for decades now—in the previous Liberal government, as well. But members across the aisle can’t see a storm coming for them until it’s knocking on their door.

Just on Thursday, I was in Kingston, where the shortage of doctors has left 30,000 people without access to primary care. The shortage is so dire that when four physicians at CDK Family Medicine and Walk-In Clinic announced that they would take on 4,000 new patients, hundreds of people lined up through the night, in the rain, to claim a spot. That’s desperation. If this doesn’t cry urgency to the Premier of this province, I don’t know what will.

Only two weeks ago, we had a few retired United Steelworkers workers here with us from Sault Ste. Marie. The members opposite will remember that they joined us here at Queen’s Park because they were asking this government to step up and do something about the almost 10,000 people, mostly seniors and retirees, who were de-rostered from the Group Health Centre in the Soo. It’s the only clinic in the area. They’ve lost physicians to retirements, to resignations, and there are no replacements available—and that is going to go up to another 6,000, to 16,000, in just a matter of months. By the end of the year, nearly 30% of the population in Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma could be left without a family doctor. That is going to be a sad day.

We are losing doctors. We are losing nurses. We are losing health care staff. People are stressed, and they are worried about whether they’re going to get the care they need. And where is Premier Ford? Where is this Conservative government? They’re too busy patting themselves on the back with these vanity ads instead of actually improving access to care for the people of Ontario.

The doctors and nurse practitioners who are still on the front lines are having to spend hours filling out insurance forms and coordinating referrals, and it’s cutting into quality time with patients. The Canadian Medical Association studied how many more hours doctors could be spending with their patients if they weren’t buried in paperwork, and that number is 19 hours a week. That’s 40% of their time. That’s up to five hours on administrative work per day. Any of us who have spoken to family physicians out there in our communities know this; they’ve been saying it for years. They’ve been saying, “Do something about this. That’s five hours that we could be spending seeing patients.” That’s 19 hours a week filling out forms when we have people sitting between 12 and 15 hours in waiting rooms just to see a doctor. If doctors are freed up from this administrative work, they could serve—get this—two million more patients. Do the math. That’s like adding 2,000 doctors to the system—so, 2,000 doctors to the system, or relieve the administrative work and see two million more patients.

Training and hiring new doctors—we know it’s going to take years. But funding and properly staffing primary care right now? That can happen right now. We could be doing this today. It’s a question of priorities.

The Ontario College of Family Physicians—by their research, 94% of family doctors say they are currently overwhelmed with administrative and clerical tasks. They are telling us what they need.

I want to share the words of one such expert—an actual, front-line health care provider, Dr. David Barber. He’s the OMA chair of general and family practice. Here is what he has to say about this issue: “Paperwork takes an average of 20 hours per week and includes burgeoning insurance forms, sick notes and requests for drugs.” Family doctors who didn’t go into medicine to do paperwork are doing that paperwork. “We want to see patients; this takes away from it.”

I want to just stop here for one moment and say that last week, when I was in Kingston, I had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. Dick Zoutman, who made the point, when we were talking about this issue, of saying, “Let’s be clear: These are not optional forms. This isn’t an option. This is what we have to do.”

Going back to the comments of Dr. Barber: “The government hasn’t sent any signals to family doctors on the ground that they know what is happening. When doctors aren’t hearing from the government that it has their backs, family doctors are just giving up. That is why we are seeing so many leaving.”

Those are the words of Dr. David Barber, the OMA chair of general and family practice.

This is time that doctors could be spending with patients, with people who are aging—our population is aging—with those new babies we see out there, with new moms and new families, with teenagers who are struggling. These are hours that could be devoted to them right now.

It’s not like we don’t know what works. That’s what I find so frustrating after 20-odd years of looking at this issue in health care policy. We’ve seen how effective our solution is through the community health centre model, where primary care providers like doctors and nurse practitioners have a fully staffed and resourced team so they can focus on providing care, not filling out paperwork. But rather than support those centres, what does this government do? Cut funding, so they’re forced to reduce services, see less patients.

And let me say, on behalf of all of those community health centres that I have visited over the last few weeks alone, my goodness, don’t those workers deserve to be paid the same as those folks in our hospitals? They’re paid 20% less.

I know the minister tries to minimize how important that administrative work is that health care providers are doing. She belittled this, this morning, in her responses to our questions.

Our solution can be life-saving. That’s why we’re putting this forward.

How short are we of family doctors? This is based on current numbers: Windsor, short 36; London, 68; Hamilton, 114; Barrie and Muskoka region, 118. Toronto—can you imagine? Nobody can imagine that there’s a family physician shortage in Toronto, but boy, 305—let alone trying to get a physician who actually speaks your language. Peterborough, 40; Kingston, 23; Ottawa, 171; Sudbury, 33; Thunder Bay, 50; St. Catharines, 51.

As I travel across this province and I listen to people, I hear this every day.

In Alvinston, I was at the Maple Syrup Festival the other day. I was standing in line with a bunch of folks waiting for the school bus to take us to the Maple Syrup Festival. That was fun. Those seniors were talking with me about how none of them have a family physician. These are folks with walkers, with chronic health conditions. Where do they go?

Nursing home residents I met with last week in Nepean and Orléans are stuck in a situation with a bad-actor nursing home company, and they can’t afford to leave it because they can’t afford to lose their nurse practitioner. They’re putting themselves and their families at risk.

Here in Toronto, I met a young man just the other day in my riding, in downtown west end Toronto, who moved there from Brampton and has never in his life had a family physician—can’t get on a list.

This government could start clearing that patient backlog by putting out job postings today for health care team members to support doctors and get people of this province the health care they need right now.

I’m going to end by just referring to one other thing: When I came to the province of Ontario, what, 30 years ago from Newfoundland, one of the reasons that I stayed here was because you could imagine raising your family here on a working-class salary. You could imagine having a good public school for your kids. Do you know what else? You could get a family doctor—not something we had a lot of in Newfoundland, even back then. But you could imagine getting—

Interjection.

This afternoon we’re talking about a motion that will improve the lives and save the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Ontarians. Having a family physician, having a family doctor, changes people’s lives. This is where the health promotion discussions happen. When you don’t have a family physician, there’s nobody to encourage you to stop smoking, there’s nobody to talk to you about how much alcohol you drink, there’s nobody to talk to you about healthy weight, healthy food, exercise. Those are all discussions—we call them “health promotion discussions”—that you have with a family physician, that you have with your family doctor. When you don’t have one, things change for the worse really quickly.

People already know that 40,000 of the people I represent do not have access to primary care; they do not have a family doctor. When the rate of smoking in Ontario is at about 12%, the rate of smoking in my riding is at 28%. Why? Because people don’t have access to a family physician. Why? Because people don’t have access to have those discussions that people who have access are able to do.

What happens when you don’t have those discussions about health promotion? Well, we know that one out of two smokers will end up dying from having smoked all their lives. They will end up, more than likely, with lung cancer—I don’t wish that upon anybody—ending up in the hospital, ending up in the cancer treatment centre, ending up using up resources.

We’ve all lived through the pandemic, when, for a time, people were afraid to go to the hospital; they were afraid to go to their family doctors or other primary care providers because of everything they were hearing about the pandemic, and they wanted to stay home and stay safe. We saw what that meant. It meant that a whole bunch of people did not have early detection of disease and sickness. We have the knowledge and skills in Ontario; we know how to detect those early, and we know how to treat them early. But if you don’t have access to primary care, you’ll wait till you are sick with some pretty severe symptoms before you go and wait 36 hours at Health Sciences North, in the emergency room, because it usually takes over a day—if you’re lucky, 26 hours. More than likely, it will take a day and a half before you’re seen, because Health Sciences North will see all of the life-and-death cases before you—you’re not a life-and-death; you just haven’t been feeling very good. And then we realize that you have stage 4 lung cancer because you did not have a primary care doctor to look after you.

We talk about health promotion. We also talk about disease prevention. We talk about chronic disease management. Many, many people have high blood pressure. Many people have COPD. Many people have diabetes. If all of those are well managed, you will be able to live a full life with minimum needs of the health care system, but you need to be followed by a primary care doctor, you need to be followed by a family physician; otherwise, things derail pretty quickly. But for 2.3 million Ontarians—the stats will apply to them like everybody else: 18% of them will have diabetes, 50% of them will have high blood pressure. I forget the stats for COPD, but it’s very high, too. They don’t have access to chronic disease management. What happens when you don’t have access to chronic disease management? Well, the disease progresses, gets worse. This is something that family physicians do all the time. They do it well. They keep people well and out of the overcrowded emergency rooms.

Do you want to have the biggest impact on decreasing demand on emergency rooms? Pass this motion. Give everybody access to primary care. The college of family physicians is ringing the alarm bell. Not only were we at 2.2 million when we tabled this motion; we’re now at 2.3 million Ontarians, and the numbers will double.

We know we are in a crisis right now. There are solutions that have been endorsed by the college of family physicians, that are endorsed by everybody who works within primary care.

Let’s get rid of some of the paperwork. We know how to do this. How do you do this? You let primary care physicians, family doctors work within an interdisciplinary team. You give them the support they need to do that paperwork. It takes a long time for physicians to review every single blood work—you’ve seen 100 patients in your week. There’s a chance that you spend the weekend looking at the results that come in from the lab. A nurse working with you could very well do that for you and flag for you the one that needs to be looked at because he or she is not too sure. It’s the same thing with sending referrals to specialists; somebody on your team could easily do this.

It’s the same thing with family physicians working on their own—it is really hard to provide quality care. I don’t wish harm upon anybody—but you’ve lost a loved one? A talk with a social worker will help you an awful lot. You’ve been diagnosed with diabetes? A talk with a dietitian, a nutritionist would help an awful lot. You’ve had that chronic back pain? Talk with a physiotherapist. That will help an awful lot.

Bring family doctors into interdisciplinary teams. Give them the support they need to focus on what they do well, while being part of a team. Every physician in Ontario who goes to school right now learns to be a family doctor as part of a team.

What are we waiting for? Those 2.2 million people cannot wait. Those 2.2 million Ontarians are at risk. Their health is at risk. Their lives are at risk. The overcrowding in our hospitals and the long wait-lists in our emergency rooms—all of that is at risk. All of that could change. All we need to do is pass this motion and act upon it. You will save lives. You will improve the lives of millions of Ontarians.

There is nothing wrong with having new medical schools. There’s nothing wrong with increasing the amount of people who can apply to those medical schools. We’re all for this. But it takes seven to eight years to form a new family physician—I’m not sure we have six, seven, eight years to wait before they come on-line. Attracting more nurses to Ontario—we’re all for it too.

But you need to fund interdisciplinary care, so that those 2.2 million people gain access. Will you do this this afternoon?

No, actually, it was before Mike Harris. It was under the NDP government. Thank you very much to the Minister of Education for that lesson.

I want to tell you, Speaker, the good news is, New Democrats have been laser-focused on putting forward solutions that are practical to the problems that are facing hard-working people in the province of Ontario today. In Ontario today, under this Conservative government—and under the Liberal government before them—things are not good. Things are getting worse and not better. But we’re focused on solutions.

One of those solutions: Support this motion today. Let’s get our doctors seeing patients, not doing paperwork. Pass this motion, and let’s move this province forward.

Further debate?

Further debate?

I’m delighted to rise in the House today to talk about our government’s plan and our continued work to improve primary care for all Ontarians.

This motion really highlights the differences between our government and the opposition. For one thing, the opposition is very late to the issue; they’re really coming in after the fact with this motion. Our government has already held consultations, spoken with primary care providers across the province, created a specific task force with the OMA focused on reducing the administrative burden, announced a plan, and taken many steps to address this specific issue. We’ve also implemented many other programs to address the broader challenges and improve primary care in Ontario.

While the Liberals and NDP, through this motion, are focused on hiring more administrative staff, our government is focused on improving patient care, hiring more doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, and all the allied health professionals. We are already taking action, listening to our health care partners and making historic investments in primary care and reducing red tape, including red tape in doctors’ offices.

Under the leadership of Premier Ford and Minister Jones, our government has been making record investments in health care.

Our system was neglected under 15 years of Liberal government, and our government knows that the status quo is not working.

Let’s look at what the state of Ontario’s health care system was after 15 years of failed Liberal government. For over a decade, the NDP propped up the Liberals as they cut medical residency positions, cut the number of physicians practising in family health teams, and created the longest health care wait times in Ontario’s history.

When they were in office, the NDP cut medical school enrolment by 10%, thinking that we had too many doctors. The impact of that decision—just using U of T medical school as an example—was a staggering drop in the number of doctors being trained. Just in one class at U of T medical school, they went down from 252 doctors being trained to 177. That’s a lot of doctors we do not have in Ontario today, due to bad decisions by the opposition.

And the Liberals, frankly, were just as bad, as the former Liberal Premier, in 2015, eliminated 50 medical residency spots, resulting in over 500 less doctors practising in Ontario today—100 less doctors by 2016, 250 less doctors by 2019, and a staggering 550 less doctors now practising in 2024 in Ontario, as a result of decisions made by the former Liberal government.

Do we wish they hadn’t made those decisions? Yes, we do. We really wish we had those doctors today because that would go a long way to meeting Ontario’s needs. But we can’t change the past. We can just make good decisions going forward. And that’s what this government is doing.

Let’s just contrast what the NDP, when they were in power, or the Liberals, when they were in power—sometimes supported by the NDP—did with what this government is doing. The Ford government is:

—reversing failed Liberal and NDP policies and growing our health care workforce, adding 12,500 new doctors across the province since 2018—12,500, that’s a lot;

—launching the largest medical school expansion since we were last in government, building a new medical school in Brampton and in Scarborough, and adding 260 more undergraduate and 449 residency spots at all of Ontario’s medical schools; and

—making a record investment recently, in February, of $110 million to create 78 new and expanded primary care teams, adding over 400 new primary care providers to help close the gap and connect some 328,000 Ontarians to primary care.

This, together with expanding all those medical school spots, will result in 98% of Ontarians having access to a primary care provider. But we’re not stopping there.

As a result of the failed Liberal and NDP policies, too many Ontarians were having to wait too long for appointments or surgery, having to travel too far to access care, or spending too much time navigating the health care system.

One year ago, our government introduced Your Health, a comprehensive plan to make bold and innovative, creative changes to strengthen all aspects of our health care system, making it easier and more convenient for Ontarians to connect to care closer to home. We’re already starting to see the results.

Ontario has the shortest surgical wait times in all of Canada.

Almost 18,000 people have received their cataract surgery at community surgical centres just between April and December of last year, 2023. That’s 18,000 people who can get back to work, can read to their grandchildren, can go about their daily lives, who otherwise would be on a wait-list.

The pandemic backlog for cervical cancer screening was eliminated by last August.

We’re continuing to make progress in improving mental health care, opening eight new youth wellness hubs over the past year, with 22 hubs launched since 2020, that are connecting more than 43,000 youth and families to mental health services, primary care and more.

We’re getting shovels in the ground for over 50 hospital developments that will add over 3,000 new hospital beds to the 3,500 beds that we have built since 2020—building more beds in just four years than the Liberals did in 14.

While the NDP sat idly by as the Liberals fired 1,600 nurses, this government has added more than 80,000 nurses in Ontario since 2018. In fact, 2023 was another record year for nurses, with more than 17,000 nurses registering to work in Ontario and another 30,000 nursing students studying at Ontario’s colleges and universities.

We’ve also added over 12,500 new doctors since 2018, and we are listening to our front-line doctors—our family doctors—about the challenges that they are facing. That’s why we’re working very closely with the Ontario Medical Association to eliminate duplicate and outdated forms so that doctors can focus more time on their patients and less time on needless paperwork. In fact, my colleague and parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health MPP Gallagher Murphy and I already toured the province—I think that was almost a year ago now—meeting with primary care providers across the province to hear from them about the administrative burden that they are dealing with and to discuss proposed solutions.

But we’ve done even more. We’ve allowed pharmacists to treat and prescribe medications for 19 common medical ailments, and this program has been an enormous success. Last year, pharmacists completed over 800,000 assessments at over 4,500 pharmacies across all of Ontario. That initiative alone has resulted in hundreds of thousands of fewer visits to doctors’ offices, which also relieves pressures on family doctors and our entire health care system.

We currently lead the country with 90% of people connected to a regular primary care provider, and we have added hundreds of medical residency positions specifically for family doctors across the province.

But while we’re pleased with the progress, we know that there’s a lot more work to do to close the gap for people in Ontario not connected to primary care.

Just last month, we made a historic announcement. Minister Jones was joined by Dr. Jane Philpott, the Ontario College of Family Physicians, the Ontario Medical Association, the Ontario Hospital Association, the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, and the Alliance for Healthier Communities—all of them came together for this historic announcement of $110 million connecting more than 300,000 people to primary care teams, the very kind of teams that the member for Nickel Belt said are the best kind of primary care. That’s the kind of teams we announced, adding over 400 new primary care providers—by the way, the job postings for those are up—as part of our 78 new and expanded interprofessional primary care teams. These teams consist of family doctors, nurse practitioners, registered and practical nurses and more—dietitians, social workers; whatever is useful for that community, they will have in their allied interprofessional primary care team, and they’ll be able to get better service that way. And that’s what I was talking about—about focusing on delivering more patient care by hiring more care providers, and less on the other stuff. These teams, as I said, have all of this stuff in them.

In Peterborough, which was one of the places I visited for consultations with primary care doctors, they got new funding, and it will allow the newly established Peterborough Community Health Centre to connect more than 11,000 people to primary care.

This announcement also included the innovative proposal in Kingston, the Periwinkle proposal, where an investment of $4 million will help up to 10,000 people connect to team-based primary care.

And I had the great pleasure of joining my colleague the member from Brantford–Brant to announce the government’s investment of over $3.8 million to connect approximately 14,000 patients in Brantford, Brant, Six Nations and surrounding communities to a primary health care provider.

Almost daily, our government has been announcing investments in communities across the province to connect more people to primary care:

—in Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston, more than 13,000 people will be connected to primary care;

—an additional 4,000 in Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound;

—6,600 residents in Leeds-Grenville; and

—many more people in Thunder Bay and Essex and across the province; I’ve got a whole list of them here, which we could go through one by one. Let’s see—

Interjection.

Let’s do it? Okay. How about Couchiching, which is getting an estimated 10,000 patients attached? And there’s Wellfort Community Health Services in Brampton, Bramalea and Malton, which is attaching 7,200 patients.

So we’re really not going to stop, as a government, until everyone who wants to have a primary care provider can connect to one. That’s why we put out this great announcement recently.

And I trust that everyone in this Legislature will support our upcoming budget to ensure that this important work of attaching more Ontarians to more patient care, more interprofessional primary care teams can continue.

Together with these historic investments to expand medical school spots and breaking down barriers so highly skilled, internationally trained doctors can practise finally in Ontario, we will connect up to 98% of Ontarians to primary care.

This is a great system. I think that the international doctors and getting them qualified to practise is such an important initiative. We’ve been talking about it for 30 years, but it doesn’t get done. But this government is getting it done, removing those barriers and making sure that internationally trained doctors can also practise here in a timely way.

While the NDP and Liberals continue to be opposed to innovation and fight us at every turn, our government is working hand in hand with our health care partners to take bold action to provide more people with the right care in the right place in every corner of the province.

I would like to read a few quotes about our primary care expansion. This one is from Dr. Jane Philpott, former Liberal health minister, dean of Queen’s health sciences. She said, “This funding announcement”—this was in February—“is great news for the people of Ontario. We know that provinces built with strong systems of primary care will offer people the best health outcomes, at the most affordable public cost, providing care that is both equitable and accessible. Today’s news moves us one big step closer to the dream of ensuring that every person in Ontario will have a primary care home.” That’s a great quote from Dr. Philpott.

Another quote, from Dr. Andrew Park, president of the Ontario Medical Association: “Family doctors are the foundation of our health care system. Every Ontarian, no matter where they live, should have access to a doctor and a well-coordinated health care team supporting them when and where they need it. This is an important step towards that goal.”

Kimberly Moran, the Ontario Medical Association CEO, said, “The OMA has been advocating for increased investments in teams to improve access to care and ensure doctors and health professions are able to do what they do best, care for patients. There are benefits to team-based care for both patients and providers so our goal is to get every Ontarian access. This announcement to triple the original funding plan is a significant move in the right direction.”

And how about Dr. Doris Grinspun? She said, “The expansion of primary care, and—in particular the enhanced utilization of NP expertise alongside RN prescribing—will unlock timely, safe and quality care for Ontarians. Better care and health outcomes also lead to lower system costs—a win for Ontarians as patients and as taxpayers. We are pleased that the government is demonstrating commitment to publicly funded, team-based primary care, which will begin transforming the health system for all and especially for marginalized and vulnerable populations.” Thank you, Dr. Grinspun, for that.

Here’s a quote from Anthony Dale, president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association: “The Ontario Hospital Association thanks the government of Ontario for making new investments in primary health care teams, which will improve access to high-quality primary care and address some of the capacity pressures on hospitals by keeping more Ontarians well and less likely to require hospitalization.”

Another quote I can offer is from the Ontario College of Family Physicians. I think my friends mentioned the Ontario College of Family Physicians—the president, Dr. Mekalai Kumanan. The quote is: “Today’s announcement to expand and grow access to teams of health care providers will ensure that more Ontarians can get the right care, from the right provider, while adding needed support for family doctors. The Ontario College of Family Physicians has been advocating for expanded team-based care in this province, and today’s announcement is a positive step forward. We look forward to continuing to work with the Ontario government to ensure that every Ontarian has access to a family physician.”

Dr. Matt Anderson, president and CEO of Ontario Health, said, “Increasing and expanding interprofessional primary care teams will provide more people access to primary care, which is critical for a stable and high-functioning health system. This expansion is an important step in advancing our goal of a more connected and coordinated” health care system.

Sarah Hobbs, the CEO of Alliance for Healthier Communities, said, “The announcement made today by the government of Ontario is historic. The expansion of interprofessional team-based care is a critical step to addressing access to primary health care and realizing the government’s vision of connected and convenient care. This is an important step towards positioning primary health care as the foundation of the health system. We are thrilled with the investment in a new community health centre in Peterborough and the new Periwinkle-Union Street team, as we know these primary health care models will provide much needed care to people who face the most barriers to access. We want to thank the government for the increased operational support for existing teams. This helps our members keep the doors open for their communities, by ensuring they can pay the rent, and keep the lights on.”

Here’s a quote from Dr. Michelle Acorn and Barbara Bailey, CEO and president of the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario: “The Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario (NPAO) is thrilled by the recent announcement from the Ontario Ministry of Health regarding the allocation of additional funding towards expanding interprofessional primary care and existing programs. This is a significant investment that will support nurse practitioners, as integral health care team members, in ensuring Ontarians receive the high-quality, timely care they deserve. NPAO looks forward to continuing to work with the Ministry of Health to advance our shared goals of comprehensive and accessible health care delivery.”

It just goes on. Let me do a couple of more, and then we’ll stop.

The CEO of the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario, Leslie Sorensen, said, “We commend the government of Ontario for further investing in interprofessional team-based primary care across Ontario. These projects are going to be critical to ensure more Ontarians have access to primary care teams that can provide the wraparound services we know result in better outcomes and faster access to care. This is an important step in building upon the comprehensive programs offered through team-based primary care and expanding these teams as the foundation of Ontario’s health care system.”

Caroline Lidstone-Jones, CEO of Indigenous Primary Health Care Council, said, “This is a great step in the right direction, and we are thankful for the investment into the integrated primary health care sector. By targeting underserved groups and areas, this historic investment will help tackle issues around access to interprofessional primary care and the IPHCC looks forward to partnering with new and existing agencies. We are also thrilled that this investment includes supports for operational facilities and supplies, and most importantly includes provisions for culturally appropriate care provided by Indigenous traditional practitioners.”

Let me do one more quote. The chair of the Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic Association, Teresa Wetselaar, said, “On behalf of the Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic Association, I extend heartfelt gratitude to the provincial government for their visionary commitment to primary care. The allocation of $90 million towards the expansion of interprofessional care teams is a testament of their dedication to fostering comprehensive, patient-centred care. This commitment will reduce barriers for underserved communities and improve access for unattached patients, particularly those in marginalized or vulnerable populations. Additionally, the wise decision to invest an additional $20 million in supporting the operational pressures faced by existing primary care teams exemplifies a deep understanding of the challenges our primary health care teams navigate daily. This significant financial support not only empowers us to broaden the reach of collaborative care but also fortifies the foundations of our existing teams. I commend the provincial government for prioritizing the well-being of our communities. Together, we are charting a course towards a more resilient, inclusive, and connected health care system.”

Thank you for indulging me to go through some of those great quotes from some of our health care partners about our interprofessional primary care team announcement, which we know is a historic announcement that is going to change the face of health care in Ontario and make sure that more people have access to primary care. It’s the largest expansion of interprofessional primary care teams since they were created, and it’s a huge boost for the Ontario primary care system.

After years of neglect, as I said at the beginning of my speech, by the Liberals and the NDP supporting each other, I know that every member of this Legislature wants to see investment in the health care system which builds a more connected and convenient system.

But if the members of the New Democratic Party across the way, the opposition, really want to show support for primary care, there really is a great opportunity to do that: by voting for our government’s historic expansion of primary care that we announced earlier this year. I certainly hope that they will show their support by voting for this continued expansion in the upcoming budget, because for primary care—for health care, really, across Ontario—it’s under the government of Premier Ford that we’re getting it done.

How about Essex county?

Mrs. Robin Martin: Essex county. I just said Essex, didn’t I?

Interjection.

It’s an honour to be able to speak on this opposition motion on primary care.

Last month, I was at the NAN—Nishnawbe Aski Nation—chiefs’ assembly meeting. One of the things that they talked about was that the First Nations in NAN territory in northern Ontario—49 First Nations—continue to experience an ongoing and worsening state of access to quality health care, including emergency health services. There’s limited accountability within the health care system. First Nations are in a state of perpetual crisis, which is demonstrated by sudden deaths of children. We have child suicide pacts and other preventable deaths that are happening.

I know that primary care, in general, and family medicine, in particular, are definitely in crisis. It is on the lips of family doctors, and they desperately need high-level leadership and policy focus to prevent things from collapsing.

One of the physicians I spoke to earlier said that many of his contemporaries who have started family practices or have taken them over—either they have already gotten out in favour of other things or are desperately trying to get out. One of the things that he said about this motion is that providing more administrative support is definitely part of the solution and would definitely make it more appealing to go into family medicine, and he said that this motion is great in that regard.

Listening to the member across the way—thank you for those comments. Thank you for not even mentioning Kiiwetinoong. Thank you for letting us know that oppression still continues in Ontario.

Thank you to this government for letting me know, letting First Nations people know, that colonialism by way of health care still exists.

In the north, we have to change a sickness system into a primary care system—because currently, it is sickness care, because the only time the system responds is when our people are dying and when our people are sick. Meegwetch.

Further debate?

Further debate?

Ça me fait plaisir de parler sur la motion qui a été faite par notre chef. Mais je veux remercier aussi mon collègue parce qu’il a parlé beaucoup de quoi mon comté—vous savez, dans mon comté aussi, il y a beaucoup de Premières Nations dans la baie James qui vivent les mêmes situations. Fait que, je veux le remercier pour amener sa perspective, qui nous donne une chance de parler d’autres perspectives qui se passent dans le nord de l’Ontario.

Je veux vous parler de la communauté de Hearst. Ils viennent d’apprendre qu’ils viennent de perdre leur troisième médecin. Les médecins, ils prennent leur retraite pourquoi? Justement, pour la paperasse qu’ils sont obligés de remplir. Ils n’en sont plus capables. Ils sont après de faire des « burnouts ». Ils sont sur le bord du « burnout », et on a un gouvernement qui est tellement déconnecté, qui dit que ça va tellement bien dans la province. Je m’excuse—qu’ils partent de leur tour d’ivoire et qu’ils viennent faire un tour chez nous, qu’ils viennent faire un tour à Sudbury. On l’entend partout, de toutes les régions, comme c’est là. On parle de toutes les régions en Ontario. Ce n’est que sur le bord du gouvernement que ça va bien. Il y a quelqu’un qui est déconnecté ici, puis pas à peu près.

J’ai près de 70 % de la communauté de 5 000 personnes à Hearst qui n’ont pas de médecin de famille. Ils sont obligés de voyager juste pour aller voir un docteur pour les yeux, un oculiste—trois heures pour aller voir un oculiste parce qu’il n’y en a pas dans la région. Il y en a, mais ils sont débordés. On n’a pas de médecins. Ils sont obligés d’aller dans les urgences. Quand ils ne sont pas capables, ils sont obligés de se déplacer. Où est-ce que ça fait du sens, ça?

On est dans la même province que vous autres. On mérite les mêmes services que vous autres. Vous êtes tellement déconnectés que vous n’êtes même pas capables de voir ça. Et on a des communautés comme Hearst qui souffrent parce qu’il y a du monde qui a besoin de médecins de famille.

Pourquoi est-ce qu’ils disent qu’ils prennent leur retraite? Ils sont sur le bord de tomber et il n’y a pas personne, puis encore bien plus quand on est francophone; on a encore moins de médecins.

On est doublement touché avec ça, madame la Présidente, et on a un gouvernement qui se pète les bretelles, comme on vient d’entendre. Ça n’a aucun sens. On a du monde qui a besoin des médecins de famille. On a une motion qu’on propose qui fait du sens. Supportez-la parce qu’il y a du monde dans le nord de l’Ontario qui a besoin de médecins. Vous êtes capables de faire des bonnes choses : supportez notre motion.

Speaker, 2.3 million people in Ontario do not have a family doctor. That’s 2.3 million Ontarians who cannot access the basic humane right of seeing someone whose expertise is in taking care of sick people. Many of those 2.3 million people have ended up on the doorsteps of our already understaffed, underfunded and overburdened emergency rooms—some of which have experienced shutdowns under this Conservative government due to its ongoing health care privatization scheme.

The goal should be to keep people out of ERs as much as possible, for as long as possible, but to do that, people need access to family doctors, so they can manage their physical and mental health needs. Statistics show that those without access to primary care are more likely to receive late diagnoses, which directly impacts both short- and long-term health outcomes. Without family doctors, if you need a specialist appointment, good luck on that journey, because you’re out of luck.

Every Ontarian deserves access to care. I say this as an MPP representing my community of St. Paul’s, I say this as a family member of folks in my own family who don’t have family doctors, and for many in this community—and many are racialized, let me tell you that. Many are in communities that are already underserved; many are rural; many are northern.

Today, we, the Ontario NDP official opposition, are giving this government yet another opportunity to help patients, to put them first. We are giving this Conservative government a solution to help our doctors get back to what they do best, that is, seeing patients, not having to fill out 19 hours a week of necessary, critical administrative work and paperwork. Help patients access more doctors by reducing the amount of time doctors spend on administrative work. That’s what we’re asking, Speaker. Help patients access more doctors by reducing the amount of time doctors spend on administrative work.

We are calling on this government to invest in administrative support staff and integrated health teams. By doing so today, we can add the equivalent of 2,000 more family doctors here in Ontario and help up to two million additional Ontarians get the help they need.

This should not be a partisan issue, Speaker. Saving lives should be about humanity. The NDP has put forth a solution. The government has the opportunity today to save people’s lives. Will the government accept our proposal today? Yes or no?

High-quality primary care is the foundation of a health care system. Primary care through family doctors is the first point of access and interaction with our health care system for the majority of people. Having access to primary care through a family doctor consistently leads to improved health outcomes. It prevents minor ailments from turning serious. It can prevent and manage chronic problems, as one of the main functions of primary care is disease prevention and health promotion. Through that it reduces the burden on hospitals, as it results in fewer emergency department visits and hospitalizations.

Having a family doctor also allows for follow-up care once a patient has been discharged from a hospital. Primary care is the first line of defence and we cannot underestimate how essential primary care is to ensuring that the rest of the health care system works.

Investing in primary care provides substantial savings to the province’s finances. Some 2.2 million Ontarians do not have a family doctor right now and according to the Ontario Medical Association, that is going to increase to 4.4 million people in just two years, of course unless significant action is taken.

What action can be taken? It’s not that hard to figure out. Family doctors will tell you exactly what needs to be done. Listen to the practitioners. There are several changes that need to be made. The NDP motion today is one step and it’s an important one, because it is a solution that results in help quickly while we also work on longer-term solutions.

The Ontario College of Family Physicians estimates almost half of a family doctor’s work week is taken up by paperwork. By providing the appropriate administrative supports, we can increase a doctor’s capacity for patient care. This is a simple solution. It frees up time for current doctors to take on more people as their patients, simply by hiring staff to take on the administrative portion of the doctor’s work.

We’re calling on the Conservatives to support this proposal that can and will make a difference in the lives of millions of Ontarians without a family doctor.

I’m going to start, actually, by addressing what MPP Martin had said, because she attacked the NDP and their record going back over 30 years ago. What she failed to mention is that under the Harris government they laid off 6,000 nurses and closed 26 hospitals. That’s exactly what happened. Then, following that, they ended up coming from that side of the House to this side of the House as the official opposition. You know what? For 15 years, their entire accomplishments could be put on the back of a postage stamp. That’s the reality of that.

I want to talk real quickly, because I don’t get a lot of time here, about Fort Erie and the fact that I held a town hall meeting in Fort Erie where we had 400 residents. You know what they were arguing about? They were arguing about keeping the urgent care centre open 24/7, like they should be when you’ve got 40,000 residents. A lot of them are seniors, a lot of them don’t have public transit, and do you know what they need? They need a doctor. Think about this.

What I did: I went to the Premier and I said, “We need to keep our urgent care centre open in Fort Erie.” You know what he said to me? “You know what we need”—I forget what he called me. He might have called me Gatesy. I’m not sure what he called—he might have called me other names. At the end of the day, you know what he said? “We need doctors.”

Well, here we have today a motion that’s going to get you close to 2,000 doctors. Why don’t you listen to the motion, support the motion, and then I can get my urgent care centre open 24/7, like it should always be open, to save lives?

That’s what this is about. It’s about getting a doctor, but it’s about saving lives. What’s one person’s life worth in the province of Ontario?

There are 165,000 people in Ottawa, Speaker, who do not have a family doctor or a primary health care provider, and I hear on a weekly basis from these patients who are desperate, who are frustrated and, in some cases, scared. These are people who have nowhere to go for basic, routine health care, who have no one to ask the question to when they find a lump or something disturbing, who have nowhere to go just to get a prescription renewed.

Our emergency rooms in Ottawa are packed, and yet this government is cutting funding to the Queensway Carleton Hospital for emergency care so that, come April, there will be 10 fewer physician hours in the ER every single day. People do not want to go to the Queensway Carleton for basic health care, but they are desperate. So desperate that when the South Keys Health Center opened up and told people they could have health care for $400 a day, plus $75 for each visit, there were 2,000 people on the wait-list for this care. Appletree is able to charge $110 for a pap test and then another $110 to get the results of that pap test. ReVive health care in Kanata is charging $600 for primary health care, and there are people in Ottawa who are so desperate for care that they are willing to pay these prices.

This is the government that said nobody would have to pay with their credit card, and yet here are people in Ottawa having to pay with their credit card for the most basic of health care.

Then, last week, we learned that there are some incredibly unsavory operators operating in this field, where there is no health regulation and people have no idea who is providing this care that they are paying for.

The government could address this crisis today, stop the exploitation, stop putting people at risk, if they adopted the NDP motion, which would provide an additional 19 hours a week of administrative support for doctors and provide primary care for two million people, which would include the 165,000 people in Ottawa.

I urge the members on the government side to vote today to put a stop to this exploitation and provide people with the primary care that they deserve.