On May 10—this is to the Premier—last year, this government’s Minister of Health stood in this House and said, “The Minden hospital is not closing.” Yet, two weeks later, on June 1, they took down the hospital sign and they rolled the beds out in a minivan, and that hospital has been closed ever since.

The community warned this government that closing that emergency room was going to take lives.

Last summer, a father had a heart attack in Minden. He was rushed in an ambulance to the next nearest hospital, in Haliburton. He died of a cardiac arrest five minutes from the destination.

A girl with a fish hook in her eye in Minden had to be transported 30 minutes to Haliburton.

Two weeks ago, the Haliburton hospital—the one remaining emergency room in the community—was without a doctor for at least four hours.

Will this government acknowledge its mistake and reopen the Minden emergency room?

In St. Catharines, Shannon Horner’s mother fell ill in Jamaica and couldn’t come home due to claims of no available beds in Ontario. Communication failures between the ministry and the insurance companies caused this. We know that there were actual beds available at the time. I wrote a letter and was assured that it was being handled. However, I have yet to see any action.

The health care system is in crisis right now.

How are you going to explain to the people stuck in other countries why they cannot get home for care? And will you work with me and update on the steps your ministry has taken to make sure it will never, ever happen again?

This happened twice in one week in Ontario, and dozens of times over the years.

It is heartbreaking that St. Catharines lost an amazing community member and family pillar.

It is time for action from this government. The minister called the family, but there has been no follow-up to the family. The president of Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada asked for changes. However, again, there has been no follow-up.

Please, follow up.

My community of seniors, travellers and snowbirds need assurance that their health care system will be there for them when they need it the most.

Speaker, when will we see real, compassionate action—and prioritize action with the experts to fix these issues?