I’m happy to continuously stand up in this place and talk about the investments that we have made in health care in the province of Ontario.

Just last month with our budget—some quick facts that I’m not sure the member opposite was paying attention to—$2 billion over three years to assist in home care and community care. Why? Because we need a health care system that protects the entire system. We’re making those investments in capital infrastructure—over 50 capital builds in hospitals across Ontario, $50 billion of capital.

Building the capital and the hospitals and the infrastructure is one piece. We also need to ensure that we have health human resources, which is why, of course, also in the announcement was York medical school in the province of Ontario, where 60% of those students will actually be studying to be primary care or family physicians.

Those are the types of system investments we are making after years of neglect under the NDP and the Liberal governments.

The finance minister made an investment in home care that was actually expedited in the fall economic statement and again, of course, in last month’s budget—an additional $2 billion. Where is that going to go? Those are investments that are going into community, that are assisting family members who want to care for their loved ones in their home. But they need that little bit of extra help. That’s where those investments of home and community care are going to make an impact—in our communities across Ontario.

But that’s not the only piece that we need to do. We have actually encouraged hospitals, through things like an innovation fund—to ensure that when they have ideas that are going to impact and improve quality of care in their communities, they have access to additional funds. We have hospitals that have been able to utilize these particular programs to ensure that wait times for surgeries, wait times for diagnostics in their communities decrease.

We’re going to make those investments, after years of neglect.

I would hope that the member opposite would look specifically at the investments that we are making in his community in primary care, in multidisciplinary teams, and see that there is change coming—

We have had increases in internationally educated trained nurses. Thanks to our reforms, we’ve already seen results.

The Learn and Stay grant program has now almost 5,000 students agreeing to work in underserviced communities such as the north. A Learn and Stay program means that students who train in the north are far more likely to live and continue as clinicians in northern Ontario.

When we make expansions in the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, it means that, again, as you train in northern Ontario, as you do your residency in northern Ontario, you are far more likely to continue to serve northern Ontario.

Those are the concrete, specific examples that our government has been able to do, under the leadership of Premier Ford, to make sure that, after years of neglect, we finally get it done in northern Ontario.

My question is to the Minister of Health.

The government’s budget last month came as a big disappointment to people across my riding and the 11 hospitals in northern Ontario and across Algoma–Manitoulin. There was hope that after months of advocacy by hospitals in northern Ontario, the government would come to the table with an increase to hospital budgets that reflects the realities they face. The increase that this government offered does not come close to meeting the financial needs of hospitals in small, rural and remote northern communities.

My question to the minister: Why does her government refuse to properly fund northern hospitals to meet their needs?

The Auditor General’s report on northern health care recommended that the government implement a dedicated health care strategy for northern Ontario, but it’s nowhere in this budget.

At a time when wait times are getting longer, emergency rooms are closing and more northerners are losing access to primary care, the government cannot sit on their hands and do nothing.

Minister, when will your government commit to a dedicated northern Ontario health care strategy and end inequitable access to health care in Ontario?