The bill amends the Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act, 2004. The amendments prohibit nurse practitioners from accepting certain private payments or benefits for providing services to an insured person that would normally be provided as insured services in specified settings. Payments or benefits for these services may still be accepted from specified public sources or in accordance with the regulations.

The penalties for contraventions of the act are increased, and a new regulation-making power permits regulations providing for and governing reimbursements of payments or benefits made for these services within six months after the day this act receives royal assent.

It recognizes the fact that we are in a drug-poisoning epidemic across the province and that consumption and treatment sites and safe consumption, supervised consumption sites have been an essential method of keeping people alive.

The members who have signed this—representing many nurses and people who have been impacted by the drug-poisoning crisis—call for immediate funding to reopen consumption and treatment sites, supervised consumption sites in Windsor, Sudbury, Timmins and in any community that requires it to stop the deaths.

I support this petition and am pleased to submit it to page Jessica.

This bill amends the Planning Act with respect to official plans and bylaws.

The amendments state that official plans and zoning bylaws may not have the effect of prohibiting the use of four or fewer residential units on specified parcels of urban residential land. They also may not impose a floor-to-area ratio on residential buildings or residential structures that contain three to six residential units, may not prohibit residential buildings or residential structures from being four or fewer storeys in height, and may not require parking spaces to be provided in connection with residential buildings or residential structures that contain at least four residential units.

The bill proclaims the third week of June in each year as Health Professionals’ Week. It honours the service and sacrifice of all health care workers, including the contributions of over 200 health professionals who work in direct patient contact and also behind the scenes to ensure patients in Ontario get the exceptional care they need.

The bill enacts the Temporary Nursing Agency Licensing and Regulation Act, 2023. The act adds a new licensing requirement for operators of temporary nursing agencies. Applications for these licences must be submitted to the registrar appointed under the act. The applications must contain a credentialing and monitoring plan, as well as a compliance plan.

Licences are subject to several terms and conditions. These include a predictable fee requirement, a prohibition on unconscionable prices, limitations on work assignment and recruitment practices, and certain disclosure obligations. Contravention of the act or the regulations is an offence and is punishable on conviction by a fine.

Mr. Blais moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 68, An Act to amend the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act with respect to the jurisdiction and control of Ottawa Road 174 and County Road 17 / Projet de loi 68, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l’aménagement des voies publiques et des transports en commun en ce qui concerne la compétence relative aux voies publiques connues sous le nom de Ottawa Road 174 et de County Road 17.

In this chamber, we have the monumental responsibility of serving 15 million people across our great province. I will never forget that the people of Don Valley East have put their trust in me to be their champion and fight for them every single day. Even though Ontarians can hold us to account during elections every four years, the reality is that we are accountable every day, and my bill upholds that commitment.

The Publication of Mandate Letters Act sets out to define what mandate letters are and outlines the expectation that all letters to—