I’ve said many times that when individual hospitals have to make a very challenging decision based on the health human resources that they have available to them to temporarily close for an hour or shift a part of their operation, it is disruptive for a community. But that is exactly why our government has made such a conscious effort and investments in our hospital systems, in our health human resources: expanding the number of nurses that are training in the province of Ontario; expanding the number of residency positions that are available for physicians in Ontario.

We’ll continue to do that work and we’ll continue to expand the health human resources because we know how important it is to the people of Ontario.

We now have, in northern Ontario, physicians who are in our emergency departments having access to other physicians who have practised for longer and are able to walk through specific issues. That one change alone has ensured that we have had no physician shortages or issues in northern Ontario. Those are the kinds of policy changes that are actually being suggested by our hospital partners and making an impact in our communities.

We’ll continue to make those investments. In last year’s budget alone, we had an average increase in our hospital budgets of 4%. Those are the changes that we make as a government to make sure that our hospitals and our community system is robust and there for us when we need it.

Thank you to the member from Thunder Bay–Atikokan for raising this very important issue.

Since the federal government imposed a carbon tax, the financial burden is already making an impact on hospitals across Ontario. The federal government’s carbon tax will impact Ontario’s hospitals by increasing annual heating costs by $27.2 million for 2022. What would that $27.2 million purchase? It would have offered an additional 104,615 MRI operating hours, providing scans for an additional 157,000 patients. These are real issues that are impacting our hospital partners and, of course, our patients.

That’s why our government will continue fighting the federal government’s carbon tax on behalf of the people of Ontario.

We know the federal government is making that travel more expensive. Over the last number of months, we have demonstrated the real cost of the federal carbon tax on families, students, seniors and on our institutions and services the people of Ontario have come to rely on.

We call on the members from across the aisle to join us in demanding that the federal government repeal this tax that is disproportionately impacting northern Ontario.

I’m going to again remind the NDP member that as we bring these investments forward, whether it is through the fall economic statement or our budgets, your party and you vote against them. So when we make changes legislatively for as-of-right, which allows physicians who wish to practise in the province of Ontario to quickly do that without having to wait for their licence to be transferred, the member opposite votes against that legislation. When we have capital investments of over 50 new expanded, renovated hospitals, including, of course, in his own area with the South Niagara Hospital, you vote against it.

I will say, you do show up for the photo op, but you vote against it when you have an opportunity to make a difference in your community. That’s your legacy.

I have to say, the investments that we continue to make, whether it is a 50-bed rehab expansion in Sudbury at Health Sciences North, whether it is a 72-bed expansion at St. Joe’s—again, where was the NDP? They were voting against these investments in their own community. Again, they will show up for the photo op, but when they can make a difference in their community and support those changes and investments, they vote against it.