Some 689,000 people in Ontario have eating disorders and they disproportionately impact women and girls. Sherri is one of them. Sherri has been waiting for a publicly funded adult in-patient bed since 2021. Why? Because there are only 20 publicly funded beds in Ontario. People who cannot afford to pay $30,000, $50,000, $60,000 for private care are dying on wait-lists. Last we spoke, she was still on a wait-list that was closed. I don’t want Sherri to die.

My question is to the Premier. Will this government increase adult ED beds, address the specialized staff shortage, make the temporary 14 pediatric beds permanent and create billing codes to ensure ED survivors and families aren’t paying out of pocket for the physical and mental health care they so desperately need?

I’m rising on behalf of our wonderful community from Toronto–St. Paul’s. A special shout-out to Liza Butcher and other St. Paul’s community members who are living with EDS, and also the ILC Foundation and thousands of others across Ontario who have reached out to our office.

This petition is to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

“Whereas the Canada Health Act requires provinces to fund medically necessary treatment for Canadians; and

“Whereas a growing number of people in Ontario suffering from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) have to seek out-of-country treatment at their own expense because doctors in Ontario don’t have the knowledge or skills to understand EDS symptoms and perform the required delicate and complicated surgeries; and

“Whereas those EDS victims who can’t afford the expensive treatment outside of Ontario are forced to suffer a deteriorating existence and risk irreversible tissue and nerve damage; and

“Whereas EDS victims suffer severe dislocations, chronic pain, blackouts, nausea, migraines, lost vision, tremors, bowel and bladder issues, heart problems, mobility issues, digestive disorders, severe fatigue and many others resulting in little or very poor quality of life; and

“Whereas despite Ontario Ministry of Health claims that there are neurosurgeon doctors in Ontario who can perform surgeries on EDS patients when surgery is recommended, the Ontario referring physicians fail to identify any Ontario neurosurgeon willing or able to see and treat the patient;

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

“Require the Minister of Health to provide funding to hire” at least “one neurosurgeon who can and will perform neurosurgeries on EDS patients with equivalent or identical skills to the international EDS neurosurgeon specialists, including funding for a state-of-the-art operating room with diagnostic equipment for treatments for EDS patients; and meet the Canada Health Act’s requirement to afford equal access to medical treatment for patients, regardless of their ability to pay for out-of-country services.”

Speaker, I support this petition, and I affix my signature.

I know this is an issue that has actually impacted former PC MPPs’ own family members. So I hope they’ll get it right this time.

I’m going to hand it over to Havana for tabling.