I want to talk about something important to me and my constituents: getting all-day, two-way GO train service to Niagara Falls. This isn’t just about trains; it’s about making life better for all of us.

I’ve been fighting for this alongside my community for 10 years, when I first ran for office. Remember that by-election in 2014? The Conservative candidate said no to GO. The Conservatives also said no to the new hospital. But my community and I have never stopped fighting, and we’ve made progress. We have GO train service that doesn’t meet our needs. It needs to be consistent two-way, all-day service.

Metrolinx is expanding GO train trips all over Ontario, yet Niagara Falls is not on the list when we have 14 million tourists every year. Our region is growing and so is demand for better transit options. Our ridership keeps climbing—last year alone, a whopping 67% increase. Over 630,000 people hopped on and off at our GO station, an increase of 377,000 in 2022.

We need to ease the traffic on our highways, protect our environment, help support tourism and give commuters a break. I’ve raised this numerous times with different governments and the CEO of Metrolinx. I will continue to advocate for the increased service that Niagara Falls deserves and it needs.

My question is to the Premier. We learned recently that pharmacists and workers at Shoppers Drug Mart are under intense corporate pressure to perform medication reviews to increase their corporation’s profits. In one week in Ontario, Shoppers, which is owned by Galen Weston’s Loblaw corporation, made $1.4 million on reviews. One pharmacy has seen a 300% increase in reviews. Several pharmacists have serious ethical concerns about these corporate targets.

Speaker, when will the Premier do more than just talk tough, step in and ensure patient care and transparency is a priority over his corporate buddies’ profits?

Speaker, when will the Premier say enough is enough, stop the transfer of taxpayer dollars to private corporations like his friends at Shoppers, and stand up for the publicly funded, publicly delivered, not-for-profit health care system that we all need and deserve in the province of Ontario?

Interjections.

I’m going to start, actually, by addressing what MPP Martin had said, because she attacked the NDP and their record going back over 30 years ago. What she failed to mention is that under the Harris government they laid off 6,000 nurses and closed 26 hospitals. That’s exactly what happened. Then, following that, they ended up coming from that side of the House to this side of the House as the official opposition. You know what? For 15 years, their entire accomplishments could be put on the back of a postage stamp. That’s the reality of that.

I want to talk real quickly, because I don’t get a lot of time here, about Fort Erie and the fact that I held a town hall meeting in Fort Erie where we had 400 residents. You know what they were arguing about? They were arguing about keeping the urgent care centre open 24/7, like they should be when you’ve got 40,000 residents. A lot of them are seniors, a lot of them don’t have public transit, and do you know what they need? They need a doctor. Think about this.

What I did: I went to the Premier and I said, “We need to keep our urgent care centre open in Fort Erie.” You know what he said to me? “You know what we need”—I forget what he called me. He might have called me Gatesy. I’m not sure what he called—he might have called me other names. At the end of the day, you know what he said? “We need doctors.”

Well, here we have today a motion that’s going to get you close to 2,000 doctors. Why don’t you listen to the motion, support the motion, and then I can get my urgent care centre open 24/7, like it should always be open, to save lives?

That’s what this is about. It’s about getting a doctor, but it’s about saving lives. What’s one person’s life worth in the province of Ontario?

It’s always nice to have a sort-of colleague or somebody just up the road from me in Niagara Falls stand up and talk about labour rights.

I thought I’d be pretty clear in my question to him. You raised the issue around painters. Now, it’s my understanding—and what I saw in the past is that painter is a pretty hard job. A lot of painters end up getting injured on the job, and they end up having to claim WSIB. Then, because your government won’t support deeming, they end up living in poverty. So my question to you is, why do you continue to vote against getting rid of deeming in the province of Ontario?