For sure.

This is what they said today—and they quoted the Financial Accountability Officer, as well.

I just want to say, every time the FAO comes out with a report that is critical of the government or has looked at the expenditure, has revealed the Expenditure Monitor—the Expenditure Monitor actually keeps, in real time, what the government has spent or is planning to invest. We fought for the Financial Accountability Officer back in 2013. It was worth the fight, I would say, because now we have an independent, non-partisan research office that can track where the money is going, or where the money is not going.

So they quoted the FAO, and the FAO is still predicting a shortage of 30,000 nurses by 2028.

They also cited the 203 emergency room closures in Ontario.

Where are these emergency room closures happening? Primarily in rural, northern, smaller communities.

I’m thinking particularly of Minden, who lost their emergency room suddenly. It happened so quickly—right, France?—in two or three months. All of a sudden, there was a financial crisis that was completely predictable, based on Bill 124 and underfunded funding models for hospitals and acute care, and the government just decided to close it. They did leave a little phone in the ER. I don’t know if you saw that. There was a phone on the wall; if you needed help, you could call somebody. That phone is even gone right now. And Minden, who are still fighting for their hospital, they’re still fighting for their emergency room, they’re still tracking all the finances and the deficits—they see a very clear and intentional path towards their forced closure of their emergency room and hospital.

The impact of a lost hospital or a lack of access to an emergency room on a community is profound. It impacts job creation. It impacts housing. It impacts education. Health care resourcing, when you do it wrong, impacts the entire community and the health and well-being of the people we’re elected to serve.

Minden is still fighting, and God love them. When I was there in the summer, I know some of our other members—the member from Oshawa was also there. Those people voted Conservative.

And the case is there for community-based hospitals. They may not be huge institutions, but they’ll have a nurse practitioner, a doctor and a nurse, and when your child falls down or gets into an accident, there’s a place for them to go. We think that is worth fighting for—don’t you think? Why this government is letting these emergency room closures become normalized is beyond me.

As I said at the beginning of these comments, to be in the emergency room and to watch these fancy commercials saying how great Ontario is, time and time again, at a minimum cost of $8 million—well, there are a lot of places where $8 million could go.

And when we brought forward the motion, which, ironically, was first introduced by the Conservatives, and in fact, the Minister of Health, today, to reverse the Liberals’ partisan advertising policy, where they watered down the Auditor General’s powers, to allow this partisan advertising to continue—when we brought forward the very same motion, word for word—and we supported the Conservatives when they brought forward that motion against the Liberals. Then we brought it forward and quoted the members who had talked about how egregious this advertising policy was, how it was a breach of trust, how the people of Ontario are not buying it—quoted them back to themselves. It was kind of an awkward moment, I have to tell you. But at the end of the day, they voted to maintain this partisan advertising policy. It really defies logic. It really compromises trust in politicians and public servants. It hurts everybody. When people see politicians doubling back on their own principles, doubling down on a policy that doesn’t meet any service to Ontario—these commercials are not serving the people of Ontario; they’re making them angry.

I guess on some level we should be thanking them. But at the end of the day, those dollars should be going into public service, not partisan advertising.

The Ontario Nurses’ Association and the registered nurses’ association have countered the Minister of Health’s numbers. And I have to focus on health care, because it really does underpin our values as a society. When people have equal access to health care, it is actually our strength—or it used to be our strength. But if you’ve seen the advertising on the subway and the lack of doctors—you’ll know that you can now buy access to a doctor for $450 a year. This is a slippery slope, something that we are so committed to fighting against.

Our caucus did a town hall on the budget last night, and one fellow from, I think, Pelham said, “I don’t have $450 to buy access to a doctor. That’s not what I paid taxes for my entire life. I’ve invested in this province. I expect access to health care, and I should not have to buy it.”

The registered nurses’ association have countered this nursing movie that plays in the head of the Minister of Health—that all of these nurses are coming into Ontario. The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario says that 10,000 nursing vacancies in the province—this is real. They said that 75% of nurses are burnt-out, 69% are considering leaving the profession, and 73% are over capacity.

So I ask you: All of these nursing vacancies in Ontario—why are hospitals not hiring full-time nurses? Why, last year, did this province condone and permit $1 billion to be spent on agency nurses—$1 billion on agency nurses? Remember, with those agency nurses—I have got nothing against the nurses themselves—they’ve actually fled the system because the system was so broken. I don’t hold anything against those nurses. I do hold something, though, against the nursing agencies that are skimming 30% of the money for profit, for shareholders. That’s 30% on $1 billion. That money could be going to Minden. It could be going to those emergency rooms to keep them open. It could be going to retraining and retaining. It should be a priority in this government.

So they asked to invest in mandated nurse-patient ratios as it will assist in nurse retention. Our health critic from Nickel Belt has been talking about nurse-to-patient ratios for years now; I would say, higher than a decade.

This is an important thing that the government could legislate. I’m going to say that it’s actually happening in BC right now, under an NDP government. Now our Ontario nurses are going to BC, because do you know what’s really important to nurses? Being able to nurse, being able to provide that care that they’re trained to do, to share their expertise with their colleagues in a team environment. And you can’t do that when you have 26 patients on one floor per one nurse.

I met with RPNs, who are probably one of the most disrespected qualifications in Ontario. These are experienced—primarily women. Their stories ended in tears almost every single day because nobody wants to go to work and feel like they’re failing the people they are supposed to be helping. So that is pushing more and more nurses into the agencies.

Now, those agency nurses, they drop into an open shift, and what nurses tell me is that that nurse doesn’t have the continuity of care of the team, is not connected to what has already happened to the patient, and is being dropped in, really, as a temp nurse. To add insult to injury, he or she—primarily she—is making three times as much as the nurse who came every single day prior to work on that patient. On a quality-of-care perspective, how does that make sense? But also, how is it is fiscally responsible?

I said this to the finance minister in committee one day: “Why are you voluntarily actually advocating to pay 30% more for health care services? How can Ontario afford that? You are out-Liberaling the Liberals on debt.”

There is a parody going around, I must say, and it is kind of funny, about all of the rhetoric that we heard from government members on deficits: “Deficits, basically, are stealing from future citizens. Debt is putting those costs on future credit cards of your children.” Ironically, that’s exactly what this government is doing. This government projected a $200-million surplus last year. Last year’s budget predicted a $200-million surplus. We have a $9.8-billion deficit in this year.