My question is to the Minister of Health. In March, your government eliminated the Physician and Hospital Services for Uninsured Persons program. I’ve been contacted by midwives in my community pleading for restoration of that program. They dealt with pregnant residents of this province who faced life-threatening conditions and needed that program. You’ve made public statements that such women would be able to receive care under other programs. I want to tell you, midwives have made it clear to me that there are no alternative sources of care and their patients are facing the fear of crippling medical debt.

Will you restore the program in order to avoid unnecessary suffering and needless deaths?

I’ll give you an example. I was told by a local midwife about a woman who, after suffering a complication from a miscarriage, was avoiding going to the hospital out of fear of medical debt. If this woman had not been convinced to go to the ER by her midwives when the program was in operation, she would have likely hemorrhaged and died at home because of her fear of medical debt. This is one of a number of cases I’ve been told about.

These are tragedies just waiting to happen. Why won’t you act to prevent these tragedies?

My question is to the Minister of Health. The Minister of Health has risen in this House countless times over the past few weeks saying that the government had “prepared” for the surge in respiratory illnesses. And yet, just this past weekend, CHEO in Ottawa has had to call in the Red Cross to help. That is not what a well-resourced and prepared health care system looks like, Speaker.

Does the minister think it’s acceptable for a hospital to have to call in the Red Cross?

Ontarians deserve a health care system that provides the care they need when they need it. CHEO has already had to cancel surgeries, open a second pediatric ICU and transfer teenage patients to adult hospitals. It’s now clear that this government hasn’t done enough.

Why didn’t the minister do more to ensure that the province was prepared for the respiratory season?

The FAO has shown that in the first half of the year, the government underspent in health care by nearly a billion dollars. To add insult to injury, the government plans to appeal the ruling on Bill 124, which has already driven countless health care workers out of our system. The government continues to underfund and degrade our publicly funded health care system.

Why is the minister letting the situation in our hospitals get so bad?

Why is the minister betraying the public’s trust by removing these farmland protections and giving away this immensely valuable public investment to powerful land speculators like the De Gasperis family?

The Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act was passed in 2005 to reverse this betrayal of public trust. Why is the minister repealing the act and once again betraying the public trust?

The minister is about to remove protections from the preserve, giving billions of dollars’ worth of public wealth to private interests. Why is the minister enabling this betrayal of the public trust?

My question is to the Premier. This week, elderly and frail patients in alternate-level-of-care beds will start being charged $400 per day to remain in hospital. Advocates told this government yesterday that the $400 fee is a “bludgeon” and used “to coerce [seniors’] consent.”

To make matters even worse, this government is willing to move frail, elderly patients into homes that could actively be in COVID-19 outbreak or that had a large number of deaths during the pandemic.

Speaker, does the Premier think it’s acceptable to move elderly patients into homes with poor pandemic track records or homes with active COVID-19 outbreaks?

Again, to the Minister of Long-Term Care: This government should have the health and safety of every Ontarian on their mind each time they put forward new policies. But with Bill 7, the government is asking frail, elderly Ontarians to shoulder the burden of an underfunded and understaffed health care system. That’s simply not fair.

The government should be investing in the health care system, in our nurses, and in our health care workers. That’s where they should be putting dollars. Ontario seniors and their families deserve to know that when they choose to go to a home, their needs will be met.

To the minister: What criteria are hospitals directed to follow to determine if a long-term-care home has suitable staffing levels, equipment and care protocols for a patient to be moved there without compromising the quality of their care?

Speaker, it’s not clear who the government is listening to. Long-term-care homes have told the government there are not enough beds in long-term-care homes to relieve hospital pressures—the operators themselves. Front-line nurses have told the government that Bill 7 does nothing to address the hospital crisis in Ontario; it simply forces patients from one understaffed environment into another.

Is the government refusing to hold hearings because they know their plan won’t work and they don’t want to hear it?

To the Premier: Less than two weeks ago, the government announced sweeping changes to Ontario’s health care system. And late last week, they revealed they would be rushing these changes through and bypassing any hearings at all.

Why is the government refusing to hear from the front-line workers and families who will be impacted by these changes?

The Ford government’s scheme could force patients into long-term-care homes up to 300 kilometres away from their families—300 kilometres—and hit them with massive fees if they refuse to move.

We just completed an election campaign. We didn’t hear a single word from this government about this scheme at that time. But now after announcing it less than 12 days ago, they’re shutting down any discussion.

Why are they afraid to hear from the families and front-line workers who will be devastated by these changes?

Speaker, my question is to the Premier.

The government is planning to force ALC patients waiting in hospitals to move to long-term-care beds far from home, without their consent. This is going to tear seniors away from their spouses, their essential caregivers, their grandchildren, and everything that’s familiar to them.

Doctors and nurses rarely need to provide medical care for ALC patients, so this won’t free up nurses or doctors. This government is sacrificing seniors to free up furniture.

Why is the government hurting seniors instead of tackling the hospital staffing crisis?

Why is the government expanding for-profit care and making the staffing crisis in our hospitals even worse?

This scheme doesn’t hire a single nurse. It doesn’t hire a single doctor. It doesn’t keep ERs open this weekend.

Will the government scrap this scheme and instead launch a plan to recruit, retain and return nurses with better pay, better working conditions and the respect that they deserve?

Again to the Premier: Families in each of these communities saw their ERs and urgent care centres close because they didn’t have enough nurses, PSWs or health care workers to treat patients. It’s clear to me and most Ontarians that we are in a crisis. But just a few days ago, the Minister of Health said it’s not a crisis.

How bad does it have to be before the minister and the Premier take action on the solutions that nurses and health care workers are proposing, take action to make sure we can deal with the crisis in our health care system?