This morning, I want to share examples from my riding of why privatization of the health care system is harmful. We all know that when the Conservative government of Mike Harris was in power, they privatized home care. Private companies were going to make home care more efficient, serve more people, offer more care. None of that is true. The privatization of home care made hundreds of millions of dollars for private companies’ shareholders and dire repercussions for people needing care.

Take Tina Senior’s beautiful six-year-old son Alex. Bayshore gets paid for 1.5 hours of nursing care daily when Alex is in school, but they only schedule the nurse for 15 minutes. What happened? His mom, Tina, a nurse with over 20 years’ experience, had to quit her job to keep her son safe.

Mrs. C from Hanmer agreed to take her husband home from the hospital while he awaits placement in a long-term-care home with home care services. Of course, home care never shows up when they’re supposed to. But get this, Speaker: They have a meeting, and her daughter mentioned that she would be there after work to help care for her dad. Now the only time Bayshore is available is after 4, when the daughter is there and when the family said, “We don’t need you.” Bayshore takes that as refused care, a cancelled appointment. They get paid, and the family gets zero care. This woman is burning out.

The list goes on. The privatization does money for shareholders, suffering for people who need care.