To the Premier: My constituent Janice complains that the surgical wait times are simply too long in Ontario. She shared with me a BC government website which publicly lists specialists as well as surgical wait times—a very convenient tool.

Since the Premier won’t keep his promise to eliminate surgical backlogs, five years after he was elected to do so, will he at least do the very minimum, which is to create a surgical wait time portal for Ontario patients, just like the one the BC government has created for their residents?

Let me just rephrase this: The BC NDP government has created a central system for faster referrals. Their residents can go online and see exactly what they need to see and get that information in a timely fashion.

This Conservative government scrapped the local health integration networks on the eve of a global health pandemic, and under this government there are now more private, for-profit companies charging for similar services. This is a disaster for Ontarians.

Why does this government insist on making health care worse and more expensive for Ontario residents?

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas one in four Ontarians over the age of 15 suffer from chronic pain, with 73% reporting that pain interferes with their daily lives and more than half reporting issues with depression and suicidal thoughts; and

“Whereas pain is the most common reason to seek health care, with chronic pain making up approximately 16% of emergency room visits and 38% of frequent visits, adding to the already lengthy wait times and delaying treatment; and

“Whereas the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) is proposing to limit the number of nerve block injections a pain sufferer can receive to 16 per year, regardless of the severity of the patient’s condition or the number of injections ... and seemingly without consultation with patients or health care” professionals; “and

“Whereas the most common treatment for pain provided by family doctors in hospitals is opioids, despite the current national crisis leading to an estimated 20 opioid-related deaths in Canada every day during the COVID-19 pandemic;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“Prevent OHIP from applying a one-size-fits-all solution to the issue of chronic pain, and allow for consultations with health care workers and pain sufferers to determine the best way to treat chronic pain without resorting to opioids.”

I’m proudly affixing my signature to this and sending this to the table with page Ethan.

My question is to the Premier. In two days, on December 1, the Connect-Clinic, a virtual-only health clinic, will have to close its door entirely to its 3,500 trans patients who live across rural and urban Ontario. These individuals need gender-affirming health care.

Connect-Clinic’s lead physician and founder, Dr. Kate Greenaway, wrote to me: “Because of the changes to the physician services agreement, we will no longer be able to provide our life-saving care. We are expecting to need to close the clinic in response.”

Speaker, will this government help save the clinic? Will they help deliver the alternative funding plan that’s needed to stop the cut to ensure that gender-affirming care continues in Ontario? Yes or no?

Although the physician services agreement is finalized, this government must reverse the funding cuts to Connect-Clinic through an alternative funding plan. It’s an option before the government.

I’m looking for an answer. We have two days to save this clinic. We have two days to save this health service. Will the government help us do this?

My question is to the Premier. I know that he has arrived, so his timing is perfect. Because—

Interjections.

Because of the changes to billing that are coming under the physician services act that will come into effect on December 1, 2022, physicians like those who are actually practising at virtual-only care clinics such as Connect-Clinic will have to stop delivering gender-affirming care. Gender-affirming care, as many will know, is life-saving care—care that Connect-Clinic’s 1,500 patients, as well as 2,000 wait-listed patients, will then lose access to by the end of this month. Many of those patients live in rural communities. They are without access to a family doctor. Many of them are actually reliant on virtual care; it’s the only access to care that they have.

Will the government commit to an alternative funding plan in order to meet the needs of trans and gender-diverse people in Ontario?

My second question is to the Premier. The patients waiting for gender-affirming care want a concrete answer; they’re hoping to have it today. Yesterday, I tabled a private member’s bill, Gender Affirming Health Care Advisory Committee Act. This House, on numerous occasions, and previous governments, have actually created working groups, advisory committees, round tables to inform the government on their work. It actually helps them build better programs and services and legislation for the people of Ontario. Will this government support that bill? Will this government stand for the trans and gender-diverse community? November 20 is the Trans Day of Remembrance. It’s coming up. Many of the members will be attending those events. Will you be able to pass this bill today?

My question is to the Premier. I was recently written a letter from one of my constituents. They actually provided, quite honestly, some very sad news. They received some communication from their medical health care provider, their primary doctor, who is actually asking them to find a new doctor after 17 years of being their primary physician. What the doctor said to the patient was that his workload is untenable, it’s unmanageable, and that he has to reduce the workload. So out of a randomized system that’s set out by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, they’ve selected 262 patients—anonymized—and they sent out the same letter to those patients telling them to find a new doctor in their neighbourhood. That represents a reduction of 40% of patients in that clinic now.

My constituent went about asking community members for referrals and none of them were able to help them. The medical care professionals said to them, “We’re not taking new patients.”

What will this government do, what will the Premier do, to stop this dumping of patients by medical professionals because they can’t manage the workload? What can you do for my constituent and the—

What is the government going to do to address the current health care crisis? What do I say—what do we all say—to this particular constituent or to an Ontarian who is looking for a family doctor? What do we say to the other families that are looking for primary care professionals? We are in a health care crisis, and I don’t think this government is taking it seriously. We need help; our constituents need help. What can you do to help them today?

My question is for the Premier.

Just two days ago, I received a letter from a nurse in my riding. He shared a story about one of his patients: “My patient has fluid filling up his lungs, and he is less able to” breathe. His oxygen is not coming “into his body with each passing day.

“It is not exaggerating to say that he is drowning slowly. He needs an urgent procedure to remove the fluid.”

This should have happened last week: “This was scheduled for last week—it has yet to happen” because of the staffing shortage.

My question: What will the government do to help this suffering patient in the next 24 hours, and what will they do in the next 10 days to alleviate this staffing crisis that we see in our hospitals?