I just have to say welcome to Dr. Sarita Verma and Ray Hunt from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. She has been fantastic in my community. She is leaving us, but thank you for being here today.

Thank you, Speaker. I move that leave be given to introduce a bill entitled An Act to amend the Health Protection and Promotion Act and that it now be read for the first time.

—1 to 1 for critical patients on ventilators;

—2 to 1 for critical patients not on ventilators—or needing very high mental health care;

—3 to 1 for specialized care;

—4 to 1 for palliative care;

—5 to 1 for rehab, except 7-to-1 on night shifts.

I hope you can all agree that’s a good idea.

The petition is quite simple. It basically shows that hospital staff play a very important role in the quality of our health care system, but many of them have to pay parking fees to get to work. That affects their job satisfaction. There are many hospitals in Canada where the hospital makes parking free for their employees. Adding parking fees to our hard-working health care professionals is a financial burden for some of them. They feel that if parking was free it would be one more step in trying to attract and retain health care workers to our understaffed hospitals. So they ask the government to fund our hospitals in a way that they are not forced to charge parking fees to their staff just to balance their budget. I think this is a good idea—an idea of which time has come.

I will be happy to sign this petition and send it to the table with page Raisa.

I would like to thank Diana Smith from Capreol in my riding for this petition, “Coverage for Take-Home Cancer Drugs.”

Basically, if—we don’t wish this upon anybody, but if you have cancer and need treatment, if the treatment is given in the hospital, it is free of charge. But the minute that you are able to go home, where your cancer journey will be a whole lot better—you get to sleep in your own bed, eat your own food—then cancer drugs are not covered in Ontario. This has led to a lot of people facing financial barriers.

I want to tell you, Speaker, that in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec, they all cover take-home cancer drugs. It is time for Ontario to do the same.

The Canadian Cancer Society will tell you that because Ontario does not have take-home cancer drug coverage, there are people whose lives are cut short. They die because they do not have access to treatment. So they ask that the Ontario government follow the other provinces and offer full coverage for take-home cancer drugs. I think that’s a good idea.

I will sign this petition and ask my good page Raisa to bring it to the Clerk.

Pour lui et pour des dizaines de milliers de familles, la qualité des soins dans nos maisons de soins de longue durée est importante. Ils veulent que le niveau de soins rencontre les besoins des différents résidents et résidentes des soins de longue durée, et ça, ça veut dire qu’il y a un minimum, à la grandeur de l’Ontario, de 4,1 heures de soins par résident ou résidente.

Donc, ils demandent à l’Assemblé législative de changer la loi sur les foyers de soins de longue durée, une loi qui date de 2007, pour s’assurer qu’un minimum d’heures de soins y soit inclus, et en ce moment, ce minimum devrait être à 4,1 heures de soins.

Basically, the art and cultural sector in Ontario is a big economic driver—we’re talking $28.7 billion to our GDP; we’re talking 30,000 jobs in Ontario alone.

Unfortunately, the Ontario Arts Council’s budget has not kept up with inflation. Actually, it has been frozen for many, many years. Many of the people who work in the arts and culture sector make way below $25,000—many of them make below the poverty line, which makes their lives very precarious.

They petition the Legislative Assembly to make sure that the Ontario Arts Council budget increases. And they’ve asked for a $65-million increase so that the arts and cultural sector continues to thrive in Ontario—but also support equity-deserving groups, such as small and medium grassroots collectives, such as individual members of BIPOC, and all of the artists who make our province so great.

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

I can tell you, Speaker, that the people and the businesses in northern Ontario need access to affordable and good broadband services. Right now, we do not have this in Nickel Belt. Most of—95% of the riding of Nickel Belt does not have access to good broadband, including myself. Unreliable Internet is not good for business. It’s not good for people in school. It’s not good for families. It’s not good for anything.

The government keeps allocating money in the budget for the private sector to set up broadband Internet. That does not work in northern and rural Ontario. I have spoken to every single Internet provider; none of them want to come to Nickel Belt. Even if this government pays for the tower or pays for all of the infrastructure, there is no money to be made. They do not want to come.

The government has to look at rural and northern Ontario and make sure we have access to broadband. That’s why those people signed the petition—and so will I. Then, I’ll give it to my good page Liam.