Speaker, to the Premier: Nell Toussaint died roughly a year ago. She was a constituent of mine whose life was cut short by a lack of timely medical care. Ms. Toussaint was a migrant working in Ontario who did not qualify for medical care, even though she was employed and paying taxes. She was struck down by an operable disease, lost a leg, and then had a heart attack and stroke. She died early.

Why are she and others, even when they pay taxes, still left without medical care?

Speaker, it came out just the other day that this government is paying substantial bonuses to private clinics for surgery that is done in public hospitals. It was revealed that the payments to the Don Mills Surgical Unit, part of the Clearpoint Health Network—it is getting paid almost double the amount that public hospitals get paid for cataract surgery, double the amount for knee surgery.

This government is engaged in a straightforward project of privatizing our health care system. That project is one which will result in less medical care for people; which will result, ultimately, in people being able to pay for their surgery and health care if they have the money and having to go without if they don’t. It is a disastrous course of action.

I call on the government to end the privatization of our health care system, to stop paying bonuses to private clinics, and to actually protect the health care of the people of this province.

My question is to the Minister of Health. In March, your government eliminated the Physician and Hospital Services for Uninsured Persons program. I’ve been contacted by midwives in my community pleading for restoration of that program. They dealt with pregnant residents of this province who faced life-threatening conditions and needed that program. You’ve made public statements that such women would be able to receive care under other programs. I want to tell you, midwives have made it clear to me that there are no alternative sources of care and their patients are facing the fear of crippling medical debt.

Will you restore the program in order to avoid unnecessary suffering and needless deaths?

I’ll give you an example. I was told by a local midwife about a woman who, after suffering a complication from a miscarriage, was avoiding going to the hospital out of fear of medical debt. If this woman had not been convinced to go to the ER by her midwives when the program was in operation, she would have likely hemorrhaged and died at home because of her fear of medical debt. This is one of a number of cases I’ve been told about.

These are tragedies just waiting to happen. Why won’t you act to prevent these tragedies?

My question is to the Premier.

I was contacted this week by a resident of York region through a friend. The resident, an 80-year-old man, was just recently told that his prostate condition could no longer be controlled by drugs and that he needed surgery. He was offered two choices: He could wait for a year and a half to get surgery with his OHIP card through Mackenzie Health, or he could pay $6,000 with his credit card and get his care within three weeks at a private clinic.

Can the Premier tell me how he can defend his health care policies when people have to pay to get OHIP-covered surgery done in any reasonable time frame?

When the Premier’s decisions mean that people have to wait ages to get surgery to relieve suffering or to prevent death, then he has failed.

When will the Premier provide the funding for health care and health care workers so people are not suffering or forced to max out their credit cards to get treatment?

I just want to note that I think I fully understand now what the health strategy is for the Conservative Party. We saw yesterday, with the information about people having their eye examinations reduced, that obviously people with problems are going to have to pay. I now can see where the future is.

When people go to hospital for a hip replacement—you’ll go in, and there will be a menu at the door that will say, “Hip replacement surgery: covered by OHIP; anaesthetic, extra. What’s it worth to you? Post-surgery recovery: nurse prices vary—but for free, we’ll pin a note on your gown saying, ‘They just had surgery. We urge you to be cautious.’ Hallway: free, but to get into a room, you’ll have to pay extra.”

Speaker, that’s where we’re headed. The sleight of hand, the shell game with this government is, they’ll cut the services; they’ll cut the services; they’ll cut the services. You’ll get something or other covered by OHIP, but everything else will be like an American hospital, where you pay for each juice and each Aspirin. You will be skinned.

I urge people to reject the direction this government has taken, because we know it will be a disaster for the health care of the people in this province.

The minister knows that if she actually put the money into the hospitals as they are now and opened up OR times, people would be getting the surgery they need now.

Ms. Visanji takes powerful painkillers to deal with her pain. She’s frightened she might become addicted to them. She can’t get the surgery she needs right now, and what the minister says is she’s going to have to wait for this bill to pass. That doesn’t help her today.

I’ll give you her phone number. Will you commit to talking to her personally, helping to address her problem or explaining why she has to suffer needlessly?

To the Minister of Health: Last week, I talked to Ms. Gulnar Visanji, who is constituent of mine. She called me because she suffers debilitating spinal pain and her pain specialist said, “You need surgery.” She tells me she has not been able to even get on a waiting list with an orthopedic surgeon. Surgeons tell her they have waiting lists two years long and there’s no point in taking her name.

Why won’t the minister help her and others to avoid this kind of unnecessary suffering?

If I can take a second before we begin the last question period of 2022, I’d like to wish members on both sides of the House and all Ontarians a safe and happy holiday season with those they hold dear.

On behalf of the official opposition, I’d like to also extend my thanks and best wishes to the wonderful staff of the Legislative Assembly for their incredible work on behalf of the people of this province.

To the amazing cohort of pages, I thank you for your service these past few weeks. I really hope you enjoyed the experience.

A special farewell to our outgoing Sergeant-at-Arms, Jackie. Thank you for your service and your commitment to MPPs and the legislative staff. May the next chapter bring you the best that life has to offer.

And last but not least, although a number have already said this, it remains to be said: a huge thank you from the NDP caucus to Kevin Modeste. Kevin has served our caucus in many capacities over many years. His service to us and to the Legislature as a whole has been outstanding. We’ll miss him greatly, but we’re delighted he’ll be able to spend more time with his wife and two daughters. That’s exactly how it should be. Thank you, Kevin.

Speaker, thank you for your indulgence.

My question is to the Premier.

Yesterday, the Premier said the government is throwing everything they can at the health care system, but it’s clear that whatever the Premier is doing is not working. Hospitals are overcrowded, staff are burnt out, and patients are waiting longer than they ever have in our ERs.

To the Premier: Why didn’t this government do more to prevent the current crisis in our health care system?

Today, not only has hallway medicine officially returned to Ontario, but somehow this government has made the situation worse than it has ever been.

Has the Premier forgotten his promise to Ontarians?

But our health care system is in crisis, and this minister and this Premier are sitting on their hands.

Families can’t find a hospital to deliver their baby, local ERs are closing, staff are having their wages suppressed, and for what? For this government to save a few dollars? You know that is shameful.

The government is sitting on billions of dollars of unallocated funds that could be spent on meaningful investments in health care right now. Will this government commit to doing that today?

Again to the minister: What should have been part of this government’s plan all along was a plan to address the root cause of our health care crisis—that’s staffing issues. This government can take tangible action right now to retain health care workers. Will the government commit to not appealing Bill 124?

Yesterday it was a family in eastern Ontario who struggled to find a hospital that could accept them for labour and delivery. First they tried their local hospital, but the birthing centre was closed due to staffing shortages. The next hospital they tried didn’t have room, so finally they returned to their local hospital. That situation should never have happened. The mom, Kendra, said this afterward: “I’m just afraid ... that health care will fail me again, fail [my son].”

What does the minister have to say to parents like Kendra who are scared for the future of our health care system?

Speaker, before I put my question, I want to welcome our next leader, Marit Stiles. Marit, we’re all confident that you’ll do great things as the next leader of the Ontario NDP. Congratulations.

Applause.

My question is to the Minister of Health. The Minister of Health has risen in this House countless times over the past few weeks saying that the government had “prepared” for the surge in respiratory illnesses. And yet, just this past weekend, CHEO in Ottawa has had to call in the Red Cross to help. That is not what a well-resourced and prepared health care system looks like, Speaker.

Does the minister think it’s acceptable for a hospital to have to call in the Red Cross?

Ontarians deserve a health care system that provides the care they need when they need it. CHEO has already had to cancel surgeries, open a second pediatric ICU and transfer teenage patients to adult hospitals. It’s now clear that this government hasn’t done enough.

Why didn’t the minister do more to ensure that the province was prepared for the respiratory season?

The FAO has shown that in the first half of the year, the government underspent in health care by nearly a billion dollars. To add insult to injury, the government plans to appeal the ruling on Bill 124, which has already driven countless health care workers out of our system. The government continues to underfund and degrade our publicly funded health care system.

Why is the minister letting the situation in our hospitals get so bad?

Why is the minister betraying the public’s trust by removing these farmland protections and giving away this immensely valuable public investment to powerful land speculators like the De Gasperis family?

The Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act was passed in 2005 to reverse this betrayal of public trust. Why is the minister repealing the act and once again betraying the public trust?

The minister is about to remove protections from the preserve, giving billions of dollars’ worth of public wealth to private interests. Why is the minister enabling this betrayal of the public trust?

My question is to the Premier. Right now in Ontario, people are being asked to pull out their credit cards to pay for health care. The Auditor General has found that for-profit clinics are pressuring people to shell out thousands of dollars for OHIP-covered services. Why does the Premier think it’s okay to force people to pull out their credit cards to access health care in this province?

Last week, this government had a chance to crack down on predatory fees in health care. Instead, this government voted down an NDP bill to stop for-profit clinics from charging for services people should be able to cover with OHIP. Is the Premier refusing to crack down on these predatory fees because it would foil his plans to privatize our health care system?

Why is the Premier opening the door to much bigger bills for patients and much longer wait times in pain for everyone else?

My question is to the Premier.

The situation in our hospitals right now is critical. In a rare and historic moment, the five largest health care unions in Ontario have joined together to condemn this government’s inaction on the response to the crisis in our health care system. Together, they represent 295,000 front-line health care workers who feel disrespected and undervalued by this government. This government has consistently failed to listen to front-line workers.

Will the Premier and Minister of Health agree to meet with public health care leaders and implement their solutions?

How can the Premier justify reducing spending on health care staff during a health care human resource crisis?

Interjections.

Speaker, this government has no intention of listening to front-line health care workers. Unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers are urgently calling for the public sector solutions that this government is not interested in. We have the space and we have the capacity in our health system; all we need is the political will from this government to repeal Bill 124, to improve workloads, and to incentivize health care workers to remain in the system instead of driving them out.

Will the Premier commit to the solutions proposed by health care workers to improve access and quality of care in Ontario?

Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Health. For months, there have been worrying signals from this government about their plans to privatize parts of our public health care system. In August, the Minister of Health received speaking notes that included the phrase, “No, we are not privatizing health care. Full stop.” But this phrase was scribbled out and never used by the minister. Why did the minister or her staff cross out this phrase in her speaking notes?

The Minister’s notes also had this phrase crossed out: “I want to be clear, there has been no expansion to the number of private hospitals who offer publicly funded procedures in Ontario.”

Did the minister or her staff cross out that phrase because there are plans to expand the number of private hospitals and private facilities in Ontario?

Speaker, the minister’s answers today have been very concerning. I’ll give the minister one more chance to reassure Ontarians about our publicly funded, publicly delivered health care system.

Can the minister tell this House today that this government is not privatizing delivery or operation of our health care system?

Interjections.

It is now clear that the Premier has decided to ignore his medical officer of health and his advice to address the health care crisis faced by our children. That decision is clear to anyone who has seen him every day since the public health officials in this province urged adults to wear masks indoors to protect children.

Without saying a thing, the Premier has told parents that they’re on their own and they can only hope that the overstretched doctors, nurses and health care workers can protect their children as we go through this hospital crisis.

When did the Premier decide that the children of Ontario were expendable?

Will the Premier finally speak up and tell us how he can possibly defend this mismanagement?

Speaker, my question is to the Premier.

The government is planning to force ALC patients waiting in hospitals to move to long-term-care beds far from home, without their consent. This is going to tear seniors away from their spouses, their essential caregivers, their grandchildren, and everything that’s familiar to them.

Doctors and nurses rarely need to provide medical care for ALC patients, so this won’t free up nurses or doctors. This government is sacrificing seniors to free up furniture.

Why is the government hurting seniors instead of tackling the hospital staffing crisis?

Why is the government expanding for-profit care and making the staffing crisis in our hospitals even worse?

This scheme doesn’t hire a single nurse. It doesn’t hire a single doctor. It doesn’t keep ERs open this weekend.

Will the government scrap this scheme and instead launch a plan to recruit, retain and return nurses with better pay, better working conditions and the respect that they deserve?

My question is to the Minister of Health.

Yesterday, the Minister of Health was asked by journalists whether the government is considering further privatizing our health care system. The minister said that the government is exploring all options.

Is this government looking to the private and for-profit sector to take over health care services that are currently publicly delivered?

Again, to the minister: Reliance on private health care providers will plunge our public hospitals and health care systems deeper into crisis. Bill 124 is draining staff from the public system, and private staffing agencies are gouging hospitals.

Will the minister allow private health care companies into Ontario, siphoning doctors, nurses and health care workers out of the public system?

Again, to the minister: Private corporations have a financial responsibility to generate profit. That’s a direct conflict of interest with their responsibility to offer affordable, accessible and high-quality care, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay.

Does the minister think patients should have to start paying for care they now receive as of right?