Speaker, the federal government has announced they’re finally going to start the process of establishing a national pharmacare program here in Canada. This will bring much-needed relief to people who are living with chronic illnesses, to seniors, to all people living with disabilities, and it’s something New Democrats at all levels have worked on for many, many years. But much depends on the provincial government to make universal pharmacare a reality, and so far, the Minister of Health has refused to commit to the deal.

So my question is to the Premier: Will you commit to ensuring that all Ontarians have access to essential medication and devices through single-payer coverage?

It’s pretty straightforward. Universal health care must include pharmacare. That was always the intention, since it was first introduced by Tommy Douglas.

We have talked about this many times in this room before—and I will remind everyone, the room is full of nurses here today. I was talking with them this morning about what a game-changer this universal pharmacare program is going to be for their patients. People should not have to choose between medication and food or transportation. Now, thanks to the NDP, Canadians who are struggling with the cost of prescriptions can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Back to the Premier: Will you commit today to ensure that Ontarians will have access to publicly funded contraceptives and supplies to manage diabetes?

Interjections.

This week, we learned that employees at Shoppers Drug Mart were being pushed to bill for consultations that patients do not need. That company can then bill the province up to $75 per call. That’s double what family doctors can bill for patient visits.

Speaker, I want to know what this Premier is doing to protect patients from this outrageous and unnecessary overbilling.

Interjections.

Speaker, 10,000 people in the Perth area are at risk of losing their family doctors and nurse practitioners, because this government arbitrarily decided not to fund one of their local clinics. There are only 10 doctors, and this government rejected their application for team-based care. Each of those 10 doctors wrote letters to the province asking them to reconsider the application to keep their doors open. If they don’t get the funding support, they expect to close within three years.

My question is for the Minister of Health: Are you going to fund the Tay River Health Centre in Perth?

Perth is just one of the many communities that is being left behind by this government. Some 10,000 people in Sault Ste. Marie are losing their family doctors in May and another 6,000 patients there are on the brink. I will remind the government that last week, I brought in retirees from Sault Ste. Marie, patients who are going to lose that care. In total, the number of patients who are losing access to primary care in Sault Ste. Marie represents more than a quarter of the population of that city. That is shameful.

Speaker, when will the Premier finally invest in the health care that people need in rural and northern Ontario instead of just serving them up his vanity ads?

Interjections.

Speaker, it’s not just seniors that they’re serving up. Yesterday, we learned that adults aged 20 to 64 with lazy eye will lose OHIP coverage for eye exams and will now be forced to pay out of pocket. Adults 20 to 64 with strabismus will lose their coverage and must now pay out of pocket, unless it just developed suddenly.

And we found out that people with cataracts are losing their eye exam coverage unless they’re referred for surgery or have “clinically significant decreased vision.”

Back to the Minister of Health again: How is reducing access to preventive eye care going to help anyone?

This program cost an average of just $5 million a year. I’ve got to tell you, Minister, that’s the salary of just four OPG executives right there, under this government. But the point is that this program helped more than 400,000 uninsured people since it was implemented, not just four. Quick math—that’s $37.50 a person, and it helped save lives.

So my question to the minister is, will she reverse this callous decision and help save lives?

We all know that this government refuses to make their mandate letters public. They’ve even gone so far as to waste public money by going to the Supreme Court to keep them secret.

But I want to ask the new minister: After years of mismanagement, what direction have you been given for this critical role?

The latest report from the Financial Accountability Office found that this government had budgeted but failed to spend nearly $500 million on social services by the third quarter of the last fiscal. That’s half a billion dollars that this government planned to invest in Ontarians and then just didn’t. That’s $500 million withheld from the critical services that people rely on, at a time when Ontarians, when people in this province, are really struggling.

My question to the minister, again, is, are you going to stand up to this Premier and fight for the people who need your help?

I really wonder about these figures that I’m hearing from the members opposite. This government has no problem finding $650 million hidden between seat cushions so they can pave over a public park and then hand it over to some Austrian corporate conglomerate to build a private spa. But they can’t find a measly 5% increase—that’s all they can find, is 5% for people on ODSP or OW, well below the cost of inflation, not nearly enough to help people put food on the table.

My question is to the minister. Will you commit to ending this legislated poverty by immediately doubling ODSP and OW?

My question is to the Minister of Health.

Yesterday, the Minister of Health defended her government’s recent decision to make seniors wait longer between eye exams. She claimed that cancelling eye exams for seniors is “actually going to increase care” for people with ocular diseases. She claimed that their planned reductions in care will give “better access” to eye exams.

Through you, Speaker: Could the minister explain how making seniors wait longer leads to better care?

I have a minute left, so I’ll make the most of it.

As I was saying, seniors in this province deserve dignity and they deserve respect. What this bill will do—again, it’s this “just trust us” approach with a government that has given us and Ontarians absolutely no reason to trust them. It’s going to target the most vulnerable among us.

I would urge the government once again to expand the opportunity for these folks to come and speak to you. Reach out to those people who are going to be most impacted. Listen to what they have to say. Do something to actually improve working conditions and pay for nurses and other front-line health care workers, because that will do more than anything that this bill will accomplish.

We have a responsibility to make sure that we don’t divide our most vulnerable residents from their families and from the care they deserve. I would encourage the government to take a second look and do something more positive with the opportunity they have here.

I spent two minutes talking about home care because that’s what seniors want: They would like to stay in their home, at least in my community, and I think, from speaking to seniors, across this province. So I would urge the member opposite to take a moment to really read this legislation and consider what’s not said here and what’s going to be determined in regulations because I think that is what is concerning to most Ontarians.

It’s a low bar to say that the only thing that this government has put in this legislation that they’re preventing is the actual physical restraint of individuals. But, unfortunately, it is a low bar, because what we think is going to happen is that people will be coerced using other means.

Our health care workers—the same people this government and these members stood up and proclaimed were heroes during the pandemic—have been hit hard with an arbitrary wage cap, while the cost of living is increasing for them, they’re living with PTSD from the experience of COVID, for goodness’ sake, and they’re overwhelmed, overworked.

We have a staffing crisis. If this government wants to actually do something to deal with the crisis in our hospitals right now, they would be addressing that. Repeal Bill 124.