This government has launched the largest health care recruitment strategy in the history of this province, and that member and the members opposite on the opposition side have voted against that. In fact, this year alone, over 12,000 nurses were registered; that is the largest number of registered nurses in the history of this province.

We put over $342 million in last year’s fall economic statement to support the upskilling of certain nurses and health care professionals across this province. And every single time that we have put forward measures, investments, billions of dollars into health care and recruitment, the members opposite have voted against it every single time.

I want to absolutely thank the incredible work that our health care heroes are doing across this province and all the work that they have done throughout this pandemic into today. That is why, as a province, we launched the largest health human resources recruiting and training program ever by any government, Mr. Speaker. That is why nearly 12,000 nurses were registered last year, a record high for any province, for this province. And that is why we have continued to make historic investments into ensuring that our health care human resources, our health care workers are supported by this government.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, the members opposite have voted against each and every single one of those measures. We will continue to do whatever we can to support health care workers across Ontario.

As the member knows and as the AG has stated, we’re reviewing the decision and we intend to appeal it.

But we will speak to the investments that we have made in the health care system. Over the past year alone, we’ve increased base spending in health care by over $5.2 billion. That is the largest year-over-year increase in the history of this province. When we look at health human resources across this province, we have put in place the investments to support the hiring of over 14,500 net new nurses. That is unprecedented in the history of this province.

We will continue to make those investments, as we have with two new medical schools that we are announcing in this province, in Brampton and Scarborough, making sure we have new medical staff, more doctors in the north through that.

The members opposite have voted against each of those measures, have voted against every single increase to health care spending. On this side of the House and with our members opposite, we will continue to make sure we make those investments—

Let’s be clear: For the last year, as our public accounts showed, we increased funding to health care by $5.2 billion in base funding. That is the largest increase in the history of this province.

What does that mean? That means that since March of 2020 this province has added over 12,000 health care professionals in Ontario. This year alone, the Ontario college of nurses has registered over 12,800 nurses. This is because the investments that this government is making to shore up our health human resources are working.

We’re going to continue to make those historic and unprecedented investments into health care to ensure that we have the support across this province.

As the member opposite knows, we are reviewing the decision that is before us. As the Attorney General said, we have the intention to appeal that.

Let’s compare our record of investments into this province against 15 years of the previous Liberal government. Let’s look at health care. They left this health care system on life support. They cut residency spots. This government is building two new medical schools—a new medical school in Brampton, a new medical school in Scarborough; increasing the amount of doctors in the north. That is in stark contrast to the members opposite.

We will continue to make these historic investments supporting health care, health human resources across this province, and we will take no lessons from the members opposite on how to make those health care investments.

Interjections.

We will stand on our record of investments that we have made—which is, again, in stark contrast to the members opposite.

Let’s look at health human resources. Since March 2020, we have added over 12,000 health care professionals into the system—just this year alone, over 12,800 registered nurses at the Ontario college of nurses.

The members opposite oversaw firing of nurses across this province. They cut hospital budgets. They closed hospitals. They stopped building hospitals in Brampton, in communities like mine that were neglected for 15 years.

We’re building hospitals in Brampton; we’re building hospitals in Windsor, in Niagara, in Mississauga, because the previous government failed to make those investments. We will take no lessons from the members opposite on how to make those investments.

As the Attorney General said, we are reviewing this decision. Our intention is to appeal.

But we will speak to our investments in health care, especially in health human resources.

Since March 2020, we have added over 12,000 health care professionals to the system.

Just this year alone, the Ontario College of Nurses has registered over 12,800 nurses—and we still have two months to go.

Mr. Speaker, we will continue to make these historic investments to support health care workers and the delivery of health care services all across this province.

How many nurses did you fire, John?

There is no government in the history of this province, under the leadership of the Premier, that invested more in public health care than this government. Mr. Speaker, that includes investing in health human resources.

Since March 2020, we have added over 10,900 health care professionals across this province. This includes making sure that, in the future, we also have health care professionals by building medical schools in places like Brampton and Scarborough, making sure we almost double the number of doctors in the north. We put forward programs in the fall economic statement: $342 million to support adding over 5,000 new and upskilled registered nurses and registered practical nurses, as well as an additional 8,000 personal support workers.

Every step of the way, Mr. Speaker, the members opposite have voted against each of these measures to help support health human resources across this province. That is a shame.

This government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, has made historic investments into health care, especially in health human resources.

Let’s compare the record of this government.

Since March 2020, we have hired over 10,900 new health care workers into Ontario. The previous government actually fired nurses—1,600 nurses across the province.

We put forward a plan in the fall economic statement—$342 million to support the upskilling of over 5,000 registered nurses, including 8,000 new personal support workers. The members opposite voted against that.

When we put forward a plan to streamline and increase the speed at which foreign-trained nurses and doctors could get into our health care workforce, the members opposite opposed that.

When we have put forward plans to build new hospitals in cities like Windsor—including Ottawa, as well, one of the largest health care investments in that city—the members opposite have voted against that.

We will continue to ensure that we make these historic investments to our—

This government has an unprecedented and historic record of investing in health human resources across this province. In fact, Mr. Speaker, since March of 2020, we have added over 10,500 health care workers across this province.

Every step of the way, the members opposite have opposed measures that we have put in place to support and increase health human resources across this province. For example, just in April of last year, when we put forward a plan to help speed up the process to train and include foreign-trained professionals in the province, the members opposite voted against that. In the fall economic statement, when we made investments of over $300 million to train, support and upskill nurses, the members opposite voted against that.

We will continue to support health care workers across this province, and we will continue to make historic investments to support health care in Ontario.

This government has an unprecedented record of investing in health care and health human resources across this province. We have added over 10,500 health care workers since March 2020, and every step of the way the members opposite have opposed that. We have added over 3,100 new beds into the system since March 2020—that’s almost the equivalent of five new hospitals—increasing capacity across the province. We’ve also put forward a bold plan to invest over $40 billion to build over 52 capital projects across this province. Mr. Speaker, every single one of those projects have been rejected by the members opposite; they voted no to each and every single one of those.

We will continue to support health care and health human resources across this province by investing in our nurses, investing in our doctors and investing in health human resources across this province.