Hon. Rosemary Moodie: The question I have today is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, the crisis in pediatric hospitals has reached a new and worrying height. Earlier this week, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, CHEO, had to call in the Canadian Red Cross to support patient care during this extraordinarily difficult respiratory infection season.

An important underlying contributor to this acute crisis is the fact that our pediatric health care system is undersized and is unable to support our children and their complex and diverse health needs. Speaking to pediatric health care leaders, they’re worried about the backlog of children awaiting surgeries.

Today, of the children waiting for surgeries, 50% are waiting longer than is medically recommended — that compares to a pre‑pandemic number of 35%. One leader told me that this is probably one of the worst in the industrial world and called it embarrassing.

Senator Gold, what is the Government of Canada doing to work with provinces to increase the capacity of critical services for our children and families? After all, these are not issues that are going to go away after the flu season is over.