In April, Premier Ford said, “We’re there to retrain the workers, find them new opportunities, new jobs,” but workers in Terrace Bay have still heard nothing.

Quoting from a letter received this week: “The government has forgotten the north and continues to give money to conglomerates with no accountability. Our families are being torn apart looking for work that doesn’t exist.”

Premier, we need you to answer two questions: Is a deal for the mill imminent? And if not, what training will you provide for those with family responsibilities who cannot leave home for weeks at a time to work?

To the Premier: Seniors in my riding of Thunder Bay–Superior North and the neighbouring riding of Thunder Bay–Atikokan are telling me they cannot afford to pay for the RSV vaccine that the government is only providing under OHIP to seniors in long-term care.

People over the age of 60 account for 80% of deaths from the virus, yet the ministry has erected financial barriers to adults seeking the vaccine who live in their own homes. Will the Premier end this discriminatory practice and provide full RSV coverage for all people over the age of 60?

Will the Premier stop this discriminatory practice, remove the upper age limit and provide shingles coverage for all people over the age of 65?

This petition is entitled “Stop Ford’s Health Care Privatization Plan.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontarians should get health care based on need—not the size of your wallet;

“Whereas Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones say they’re planning to privatize parts of health care;

“Whereas privatization will bleed nurses, doctors and PSWs out of our public hospitals, making the health care crisis worse;

“Whereas privatization always ends with patients getting a bill;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately stop all plans to further privatize Ontario’s health care system, and fix the crisis in health care by:

“—repealing Bill 124 and recruiting, retaining and respecting doctors, nurses and PSWs with better pay and better working conditions;

“—licensing tens of thousands of internationally educated nurses and other health care professionals already in Ontario, who wait years and pay thousands to have their credentials certified;

“—making education and training free or low-cost for nurses, doctors and other health care professionals;

“—incentivizing doctors and nurses to choose to live and work in northern Ontario;

“—funding hospitals to have enough nurses on every shift, on every ward.”

I fully support this petition, and will sign it and give it to Margo.

While in Thunder Bay this weekend, I learned that our hospital is already overflowing with COVID and flu cases and that RSV, the virus that threatens young children, is spreading rapidly. This is concerning.

Between the deliberate underfunding of health care and the calculated imposition of Bill 124, our hospitals and clinics are losing staff in droves and, as a result, we are losing the experience of those most qualified to mentor the next generation of health care workers. The health care crisis will continue until the Ford government decides to value those already working in the system.

Sadly, today, we are again seeing this government’s callous disregard for workers. For months, our lowest-paid education workers have been trying to negotiate a living wage, and now, rather than negotiating in good faith, the Ford government is set to crush education workers by again taking away their bargaining rights and imposing an unfair settlement.

To health care workers, education workers and all workers keeping our province operating: Thank you for your care, compassion and dogged persistence. We see you, we appreciate you and we stand with you.

I have heard about empowered mayors, but I’ve also heard about disempowered councillors and disempowered communities who will be losing substantial access to their voice at council. There’s also nothing to say that any family will be able to afford any single one of these homes, because there is nothing in the bill that addresses this.

So how does the bill, or how does your government, intend to address accessibility and affordability?

I’d like to welcome my partner, Maureen Ford, who is in the gallery and drove down from Thunder Bay with me to help me settle in, and my very good friend Diem Lafortune.