My question this morning is for the Premier. Hamilton has a shortage of 114 doctors, which is one of the highest shortages in the province. Currently, 60,000 people don’t have a family doctor in Hamilton. In two years, that number, shockingly, is expected to double.

Right now, family doctors spend 40% of their time doing paperwork and administrative tasks instead of caring for and seeing their patients.

This afternoon, we will be debating our opposition day motion that will propose clear solutions to this burden on our health care system. My question: Will you support our opposition day motion, or will you continue to force doctors to spend their time on unnecessary paperwork instead of treating patients?

But instead of fixing the problem that I’m discussing, your government, Premier, is making this problem worse by—shockingly enough—allowing for-profit companies like Shoppers Drug Mart to profit from unsolicited MedsCheck calls. Imagine: for-profit health care. Shoppers makes $75 for a phone call while our doctors are forced to sign off. Our doctors have to sign off without compensation. So this is insulting to our already burned-out, overworked group of family doctors in Ontario, not to mention Hamilton.

So my question to the Premier: Why are you forcing family doctors to do paperwork for mega-corporations like Shoppers Drug Mart, instead of treating and seeing their patients?