Remarks in Anishininiimowin. The question is for the Premier. Speaker, the health care system in northern Ontario has huge challenges. We are short hundreds of doctors and people are getting sicker. People are dying. This is the Ontario that I know.

Two weeks ago, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation declared a health state of emergency across the whole north, not just on reserves. This government doesn’t have the courtesy to respond when emergencies get declared. Northern health care should not operate in a state of emergency. Will the government respond to the state of emergency? Yes or no?

Interjections.

I want to use my last supplementary to ask about another emerging health care issue. This government’s privatization-for-profit scheme is leaving patients across this province frustrated and very, very deeply worried about being charged for medically necessary services.

The Minister of Health has stood there and said that they are expanding private cataract surgeries, but we have more reports today that dozens of patients are being overbilled and charged for additional lenses and services that they did not ask for. This is exactly what we warned about: Patients being told they will only have to use their health card are just being handed a bill for thousands of dollars after their treatment.

The minister’s response has been incredibly disappointing. She recognized this practice as a violation of the commitment-to-medicare act, but has not offered, to this date, any solutions to protect patients.

I’m going to ask the minister, and I don’t want to hear that these patients consented to it, because it’s clear that patients were misled by this clinic. Minister, when will you enforce your own regulations and stop companies profiting off the backs of patients?

Interjections.