Speaker, jurisdiction of health care for First Nations people doesn’t end when you step off a reserve.

On January 24, leadership of Nishnawbe Aski Nation held an emergency meeting on mental health and addictions. All levels of government were invited, and the leadership from NAN were very disappointed when none of the Ontario ministers showed up for the meeting.

Can this government let the people know why they didn’t show up for the emergency meeting?

This government has an opportunity to listen to First Nations on health transformation, to be true treaty partners in health. We cannot continue to operate in crisis.

And we don’t need to continue to lose our children to preventable deaths by suicide. It’s not normal to attend funerals for 11-year-olds who have died by suicide.

Will this government start taking this Nishnawbe Aski Nation health state of emergency seriously?

I’m pleased to hear that the member in the opposition is actually talking about investments in our health care system. It is disappointing to suggest that the 50-plus hospital capital builds that we already have in the system have been voted against consistently—every time we have a budget, every time we have estimates, the member opposite votes against those.

So I would hope that, as the process continues with the new Whitby hospital—and I have to say, there is not a day that the member from Whitby does not talk about and give me an update on what is happening in his community.

And the other Durham members know, as all of us are, that we are very excited about the capital builds that are happening in our hospital systems across Ontario.

I am very seized with the Whitby hospital, in particular, and I know that, with the support of the members’ opposite—I hope that you vote for it when it comes forward.

As Ontario’s population ages, as Ontario’s population increases, we are there as a government—whether it is expanding health human resources or seats in colleges and universities, whether it is directing and making sure the people who want to practise in the province of Ontario have a seamless pathway to do that, or whether it is an expansion of the North Durham Family Health Team that we announced two weeks ago.

I trust that, while the member advocates for her region, she keeps in mind that every time she votes against these projects, she is suggesting to her community that they are not worthy.