I have before me 210 signed petitions that are part of over 38,000 demanding that the Minden emergency room be opened. This has been the case since June 1 of 2023, and the substance of this petition is literally life and death, because in an emergency, minutes matter. This petition demands that the emergency room be reopened. It’s the right thing to do. It is necessary and, in some cases, it’s life and death.

I’m definitely signing this and giving it to the page.

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I’m submitting 500 of over 10,000 petitions to immediately reopen the Minden emergency department. It says:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the Haliburton Highlands Health Services Board of Directors has, without consultation with the affected stakeholders, closed the emergency department located in the municipality of Minden Hills, Ontario, on June 1, 2023;

“Whereas the loss of service is jeopardizing the lives of residents in the community;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to direct the Minister of Health to use her powers under section 9.1 of the Public Hospitals Act to immediately reopen the Minden emergency department.”

Speaker, of course I support this petition. I will be signing it and giving it to page Justin.

In an emergency, there’s no worse feeling than being unable to contact emergency services or our loved ones. With the recent terrible acts of violence on the TTC, having access to cellular service in the subway tunnels would make people feel safer in a crisis. The infrastructure is there, but big telecom is not willing to use it.

Does this government think that’s right? And if not, what are they willing to do about it?

It’s an honour as always to rise in the House, and I want to thank the member for London West, my friend and colleague, for introducing this important legislation yet again.

One of the first things this government did when it was elected in the last term was to eliminate the two paid sick days introduced in 2017 before the pandemic. It took 14 years to push the Liberal government to do this, and it still wasn’t enough, but one of the first things they did was they ripped that up. It made no sense then; it doesn’t make any sense now. Imagine, at the height of the pandemic: When people were sick, many of them were told to stay home and not get paid, or then to hide the fact in some cases, and go in to work and potentially spread illness. This was not good government strategy.

Health care professionals and economists have been saying for years that paid emergency leave is good public policy, not just during a pandemic. When a worker goes to work sick, it takes them longer to recover and the risk of spread increases, raising overall costs. Imagine a child care worker compelled to go to work sick, putting themselves, their co-workers and children at risk. It’s easy to understand the ripple effect that can happen when the children become sick, then their caregivers, and it passes on to their family. It spreads and spreads. Think about food handlers at a busy restaurant. The list goes on and on.

These are our front-line workers. In fact, close to 60% of workers do not have paid sick days and cannot afford to stay home without pay, especially now that the cost of living is through the roof. They risk their lives and their co-workers’ when they have no real choice but to go to work sick. Paid sick days are critical during a pandemic, and they’re always critical for curbing any new waves that come when these mandates are lifted.

Paid sick days save lives, and the bill that we’re debating today, put forth by my good friend, does many things. It provides adequate days so that workers, when sick, can be home, not spread illness, not spread infection. When a loved one under their care is sick, it gives them the chance, because that person is relying on that family member to be able to assist them and to stay with them.

What we have right now is a patchwork of days. We’re going to fix that. We want to expand the list of members for whom leave can be given to recognize changing realities here in Ontario.

We also, and think about this, want to prohibit employers from requiring a doctor’s note for emergency leave. Think about it: Right now if you want to go see your family doctor, many of them say that if you have flu-like symptoms, stay home. So how are you, in many cases, going to a doctor to be able to get that affirmation that you’re, in fact, sick when many doctors aren’t willing to even see patients under these conditions? Someone is not feeling well. They’re very sick. They’re throwing up. You know what? Let’s put them on a bus and send them to a doctor. That is what’s going on right now. It’s not right. Let’s trust our workers.

We do want to call for financial support for businesses and small businesses that are struggling to make this a reality.

And finally—it was mentioned in one of the government members’ speeches—they said that the government is playing politics with the rights of workers. That is the absolute farthest from the truth. The soul of the NDP is to fight for workers every day in this House. It is part of our soul and why we’re here.

Work with us. Do the right thing. Give the workers the sick days they need to take care of their families, and we’ll build a better province. The power is yours.