Speaker, the minister needs to get out of the backrooms and start listening to Ontarians. If she thinks that we’re doing well in the province of Ontario, boy—2.2 million Ontarians without access to primary care; operating rooms collecting dust. We have some of the best health care workers in the world, but we can’t retain them. They’re leaving faster than we can recruit them.

This government has no strategy to recruit and retain and return nurses to our hospitals and our long-term-care homes. Our long-term-care homes, our hospitals are relying increasingly on staffing, on private agency nurses that are bleeding the system dry.

I want to go back to the Premier again. How many more emergency rooms, how many more urgent care centres have to close before this government implements solutions that actually work in the province of Ontario?

Interjections.

Speaker, my question is for the Premier. The Information and Privacy Commissioner’s office has ordered the Ministry of the Solicitor General to turn over records of which OPP officers worked at the Premier’s family stag-and-doe event. We know these are the records that the government has refused to share with journalists through freedom-of-information requests. We know the RCMP is also investigating this matter. The Premier has denied there were extra officers on the site, but he’s going to great lengths to withhold the details.

So to the Premier: Can he confirm how many OPP officers were assigned to work at his family’s stag and doe event?

I want to remind the Premier that he’s not above the law, that the police don’t work for him and that they work for the people of Ontario.

We’ve already seen two explosive reports about this Premier’s family’s stag and doe. The reports revealed a deeply troubling pattern of a government that continues to help a select few of their friends at the expense of everybody else, and now we’re waiting for the results of an RCMP criminal investigation into this government’s conduct.

So my question is to the Premier: Did the RCMP have to step in because of concerns about the Premier’s close relationship with the OPP?

Speaker, I know they spent millions of taxpayer dollars on those ads, so they want to get their money’s worth, but what if I told you there is a province where two million Ontarians cannot find a family doctor and we have a Premier who is not doing his job?

We are very proud to be joined in the House today by steelworkers from the great city of Sault Ste. Marie. They’re here to ask for help after 10,000 patients were notified that they’re going to lose primary medical care at the Group Health Centre. The centre was founded by steelworkers. They agreed to payroll deductions to build it and to support workers and their families, and it came with an agreement that they would receive health care for the rest of their lives. Now, with those physicians retiring or resigning, there is no one to replace them. That’s the reality in the province of Ontario: There is no plan for the founding members or the historical commitment made to them.

So I want to ask the Premier, what is this government doing right now to address the urgent crisis in primary care in Sault Ste. Marie?

In total, more than a quarter of the population of Sault Ste. Marie is slated to lose access to primary care. That’s unacceptable to me, and it should be unacceptable to this Premier. Speaker, the official opposition NDP is joining steelworkers and retirees in the call for an immediate strategy to recruit and deploy primary care doctors and health care professionals to Sault Ste. Marie and to other communities in northern Ontario deeply impacted.

To the Premier: When will this government commit to the recruitment and retention strategy for health care workers in northern Ontario?

Interjections.

Speaker, the steelworkers of the Soo understand the need to protect health care today and into the future. That’s why they have suggested immediate solutions that will continue to pay off for years and years to come and include a plan to support internationally trained doctors to practise in this province. They’ve called for an expert panel as well that’s going to help expedite the training and mentoring that’s needed to bring doctors to communities like Sault Ste. Marie.

Speaker, these solutions could be implemented immediately. They could have been implemented yesterday if this government had the political will to do so.

To the Premier: Will he stop making excuses and act now to urgently bring doctors to Sault Ste. Marie?

Interjections.

If these patients in Sault Ste. Marie lose access to their primary care doctors, they’re going to be forced to rely on those increasingly crowded emergency rooms for their basic needs. The closest emergency room outside of Sault Ste. Marie is four hours away. We heard today of somebody who waited 15 hours recently who also has lost their doctor.

Access to primary care should not depend on where we live. Across the province, I am hearing from countless, countless Ontarians who are worried about losing access to health care as well. For doctors, it’s not just about staff or office spaces, it’s also about housing and transportation and access to other services. It’s impossible for hospitals and clinics to recruit health care workers when there’s no accessible housing or transportation—

Interjection.

Interjections.