Our government was elected with a stronger mandate to build Ontario, particularly to build a resilient health care system. In our most recent budget, we are allocating $48 billion to expand hospitals across the province of Ontario. Mr. Speaker, $32 billion of that are grants that will go to increase bed capacity and increase the number of operating rooms, as well as to expand emergency departments in communities.

Last week, we released a request for qualifications—I know my seatmate is very thrilled about this—for the Quinte Health hospital. This will be a brand new hospital in eastern Ontario, Mr. Speaker. We want to make sure that if you are in need of care in the province of Ontario, you will be able to receive it.

The Minister of Long-Term Care and my ministry, the Ministry of Infrastructure, are working together to make sure that we address the long wait-lists. We are on our way to building 31,000 new beds and upgrading 28,000 beds across Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, you’ve heard me speak about the rapid delivery program, where we built a long-term-care home in 13 months in Ajax. We are almost ready to open two more long-term-care homes in Mississauga, which will activate 600 beds. By building hospitals and long-term-care homes, we are protecting our most vulnerable.

Building hospitals is a priority for the people of Ontario.

I want to thank the member from Niagara West for his hard work in helping to build key health care infrastructure in the Niagara region.

In our most recent market update, we are advancing on the construction of our hospitals—which includes the South Niagara Hospital project. Once completed, the South Niagara Hospital will be a full acute-care hospital with a state-of-the-art, 24/7 emergency department with diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical service. This is in addition to expanding the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby—which, by the way, was the very first hospital that our government announced when we were elected in 2018. I’m very excited that we’re making progress on these two projects.

In Brampton, we’re building a new hospital, which will include a 24/7 emergency department.

In southwestern Ontario, we’re moving forward with the widening of Highway 3 from Essex to Leamington.

And in Durham region, the Grandview children’s treatment centre in Ajax is under construction.

There will be lots more to share in the year 2023.