Speaker, 2024 marks 100 years of the city of Oshawa. However, our roots go much deeper than that. The earliest known settlement was in the 1400s, when the Wendat settled near Harmony Creek. The story goes that “Oshawa” meant “where we must leave our canoes,” and Oshawa was known as the carrying place where goods and canoes were carried north to Lake Scugog. It was a busy place of intersections. By 1850, Oshawa had become a growing village.

By 1914, the McLaughlin Carriage Co. was the largest carriage maker in the British empire, and the McLaughlin Buick was the first car built in Oshawa in 1908 under the GM umbrella. General Motors of Canada was born in 1918, with Sam McLaughlin its first president.

A hundred years ago, Oshawa achieved city status on March 8, 1924. From canoes to carriages to cars, Oshawa was on the move.

Oshawa is the home of labour. In 1928, 3,000 striking autoworkers voted to form an Oshawa auto union. In 1937, the UAW 222 Local was born out of another massive strike. CAW, and now Unifor Local 222, has been the heart of Oshawa labour ever since.

Oshawa was the hometown of Ed Broadbent’s local and national legacy. Oshawa is an academic centre, with three post-secondary institutions. It is a centre for health care, sports, arts, music and culture, and is a hub of business, creativity and diversity.

As it has always been, Oshawa is a place of intersections, innovation and possibility. Happy 100th birthday to the city of Oshawa.

“Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the Wolfe Island ferry and Glenora ferry have had serious service disruptions due to a staffing crisis created by the Ontario government; and

“Whereas residents and visitors to Wolfe Island have been trapped on the island for up to 12 hours with no way to leave, even for emergencies or work; and

“Whereas Glenora ferry has had a reduced schedule during this year’s busy tourism season, creating hours of lineups and delays for passengers; and

“Whereas the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) ferry workers are drastically underpaid in comparison to the rest of the marine industry, causing recruitment and retention issues; and

“Whereas instead of paying competitive wages and hiring more permanent staff, MTO has contracted out the work to Reliance Offshore, an out-of-province, private temporary staffing agency, which charges up to twice as much hourly as ministry staff earn; and

“Whereas contracting out the work is a waste of our public funds on a stopgap solution that doesn’t provide long-term stability to our ferry system;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“(1) Fix our ferries—stop the service disruptions and reductions caused by ministry understaffing.

“(2) Repeal Bill 124, which has imposed a three-year wage cut on already underpaid ferry workers during high inflation, and pay them fair, competitive wages.

“(3) End the outrageously expensive contracts with private temporary staffing agencies and hire permanent Ministry of Transportation ferry workers to work and live in our communities instead.”

Of course, I support this petition. I will affix my signature and send it to the table with page Ella.

Most people listen to their doctors. People trust their advice and do what they are told that they need to do. That said, that is not happening when it comes to this government and sound medical advice. This government hasn’t been listening to doctors, which is why we are here today debating a practical solution proposed by the Ontario NDP to help more doctors to see more patients.

The lines for walk-in clinics start well before they open and wrap around buildings. People need care, but they can’t find it. Nicole in Oshawa has a family doctor in Scarborough, but she can’t get off that roster to free up space for a local patient, because then she won’t have a doctor. Frank moved here from out of province and hops from clinic to clinic to get important prescriptions renewed. Newcomers and new neighbours try to figure out waiting rooms without English or a primary care provider. Folks need access to medical care, and they need family doctors.

The Oshawa Clinic is moving to Whitby imminently, and we don’t know what will become of their patients if they can’t travel and follow them.

Some 2.3 million Ontarians do not have a family doctor. The NDP has a solution that will get people access to the doctors we have today by freeing them up to see additional patients. Doctors are tied up with paperwork and are unable to see as many patients as they otherwise could if they had support with the workload. We have listened to our doctors, and we’re proposing that the province hire staff support to free up family doctors, and we’re proposing that the province hire staff soon. We could take an additional estimated two million more patients—the doctors can handle up to two million additional patients if we did something now. This still won’t solve all the ills of the system. We need more doctors in the system and more doctors to go into family medicine. We still need family doctors in communities where there aren’t any. But where there are doctors, we want them to be able to work to their full capacity.

Hire staff support to handle the paperwork, so doctors can handle the patient work. There is no time to waste, because as we know, an ounce of prevention is a worth a pound of cure. We want a healthier system so we can have healthier communities. We need to do something today to support the family doctors of tomorrow.

Today, we can support this motion to ensure more patients have access to the doctors we currently have. This motion is just what the doctor ordered, and I hope this government will follow good advice.