 It is now time for oral questions. I recognize the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Thanks very much, Speaker. Speaker, my first question this morning is to the Premier. It's now been six days since the Long-Term Care Commission issued its report outlining the horrifying conditions in long-term care as COVID-19 ripped through as well as this government's failure to protect seniors. In fact, I quote from the report they said, alarm bells should have been ringing loudly in Ontario. There was no plan to protect residents in long-term care. The Premier and the Minister all summer long claimed that there was an iron ring around long-term care and everybody knew that there was no such thing and yet nobody on the government side is prepared to take responsibility for the tragedies, the horrifying tragedies that took place in long-term care. When is this Premier going to do the right thing and remove the Minister of Long-Term Care? To reply, I recognize the Premier. Through you, Mr. Speaker, I first want to acknowledge the families who loved ones were impacted by what happened in long-term care homes. It was a tragedy and it was absolutely terrible. Our government called the Commission to action to provide accountability and justice for the families as soon as possible. It is now all of our responsibilities to fix a system that no government has gotten right. Not Bob Ray, not Mike Harris, not Dalton McGinty, not Kathleen Nguyen. The final report shows what we've been saying all along. After years of neglect by governments of all political stripes, red, orange, and blue, our long-term care system was broken. But, Mr. Speaker, we're the government who will finally fix it. According to the Commission report, I'll quote, many of the challenges that had festered in long-term care sector for decades, chronic underfunding, severe staffing shortages, outdated infrastructure, and poor oversight contributed to deadly consequences for Ontario's most vulnerable citizens during this pandemic. That's your question. Well, Speaker, part of the Premier's problem is nobody has taken accountability for what happened in long-term care through the first and second waves. And there's no denying that decades of Mike Harris and Dalton McGinty and Kathleen Nguyen and Stephen Dalduca were a big part of the mess in long-term care. But this government has to take some responsibility for the cuts that it made in 2018 cancelling the comprehensive inspections. In 2019, cutting funding for long-term care and for public health. No single home has lost a license. There has been no minister that has lost their job. There have been literally no consequences for the horrors that families live through through COVID-19 in long-term care. Why does this Premier continue to protect his minister instead of showing families that someone will step up and take responsibility? The Premier needs to do that by removing the minister of long-term care from her portfolio. The Premier. Well, through you, Mr. Speaker, I have full confidence in my minister. She's done more as a doctor to serve those most in need than anyone in this chamber. Anyone, bar none for 30 years. She's dedicated her life to protecting the most vulnerable, caring for those who are sick on the front lines, and that deserves respect. Her voice and experience are vital as we correct the decades of inaction in long-term care sector caused by many governments because of her leadership, we're already seeing success in this sector. For example, thousands of new long-term care beds being built, the implementation of four hours of care, and hiring thousands and thousands of new PSWs. Speaker, it's absolutely disheartening to hear this Premier defending his minister of long-term care instead of having spent the last year defending seniors who were losing their lives to COVID-19. I want to tell the Premier something that I asked his minister on Monday. I want him to hear what I asked her. The Commission, of course, had a number of family stories that they outlined which were just horrifying. But on Monday, here's the one I decided to bring forward, and I quote, of all the pictures I have of my mother over the years, the one that's burned into my mind forever is her lying there in a wet diaper without even a blanket to cover her with her arm up, stretched in the air, begging for water, and asking God why he had forsaken her. Speaker, this can never happen again in our province. Front-line workers, family members, have no confidence in this government, in this minister, in this Premier to fix long-term care. The very least this Premier should do is show some accountability. Fire that minister from her position because nobody has any faith in her ability to fix the system. Members, please take your seats. And the Premier to respond. Sure. You know, what I do agree with the Leader of the Opposition, it was a tragedy. And it's heartbreaking hearing these stories over and over again for decades of neglect. And, you know, we saw this happen right across the province, but, you know, we looked at, let's use Roberta Place and Barry, that the UK variant got in there. One person wiped out all of Roberta Place. The mortality was up close to 100. The infections was 200 because the variants got into our country. Just one person, yesterday, 12 people that we know of, that we know of just going through the airport came in with COVID. That's 12 people. Multiply that by 10 in a day if they don't stay at home. Because they aren't staying at home, by the way, Mr. Speaker. We need the federal government to stop the leak. It's like there's a hole in the roof and the water's pouring in and the federal government's just not doing anything about it. And it continues to spread. We, all frontline healthcare workers are working hard. Everyone's getting vaccines. We're working around the clock, but there's a gaping hole right now. And I'm asking once again for the federal government to tighten up our borders until we don't see this tragedy happen in any long-term care. The next question, the Leader of the Opposition. Thanks, Speaker. My next question is to the Premier, but the people of Ontario deserve more than a Premier that just deflects to another order of government. Residents and families are desperate for change in long-term care, but we got a pretty clear signal yesterday that that change is nowhere to be found. For example, top executives at for-profit long-term care chains collected massive bonuses during 2020. Well, literally thousands of seniors were dying in long-term care. The CEO of extended care was paid $1.7 million. The outgoing CEO of Sienna, $4.7 million. The extended care is the same chain, long-term care chain that operated Orchard Villa, where some of the most horrifying situations occurred, where people were dying of neglect and dehydration. Can the Premier, how can the Premier continue to defend making profits in long-term care, continue to shovel public dollars at for-profit long-term care homes in our province? This should stop. Will he make that commitment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know it's easy for the leader of the opposition to blame my great minister, but the buck stops with me. That's what it stops with. It stops with me, and I'll take responsibility across the province, and I'll tell you what we're doing to correct it. Just think of 15 years under the NDP and Liberals, and especially the last few years, 2011-2018, 611 beds were put together out of all those years. I'll tell you what we're doing to fix it. As the province, as the Ontario government is moving forward, with 80 new long-term care projects, which will lead to an additional 7,510 new beds, 4,197 upgraded long-term care spaces, Ontario is investing over $933 million in these projects province-wide. On top of that $1.75 billion already earmarked for delivery of 30,000, compared to 611 to 30,000 new spaces over 10 years. We're hiring over 27,000 PSWs and nurses. That's 27,000. We recognize there was a problem. We recognize there was a massive problem. But guess what? Thank you. Supplementary? There is absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind that the long-term care system is a broken system. But here's another example of how this government is prepared to carry on. Sienna and extended care took $157 million in COVID funding. And the government continues to shovel more money at those operators. These are operators in which their homes were literally scenes of horror for residents and family members, homes like Orchard Villa. The sector is one in which these bonuses are being paid while senior executives are mocking grieving family members, suggesting that they're launching blood-sucking lawsuits. These are the buddies of this government. In fact, to add insult to injury today, the Minister of Energy appointed one of the vice presidents of for-profit extended care to the board of the IESO, a nice cushy appointment by this government. Will no one on the government side ever step up and stand up for the families and the victims in long-term care instead of their friends and buddies in the for-profit industry? Thank you. Just a second. I recognize the premier. Again, I have no buddies in long-term care. But do you know who my buddies are? They're the frontline PSW. The nurses that are working. All of us. Thank you for coming to order. We're the first government in Ontario and Canada, and I'm sure probably one of the first in North America that will direct four hours of care on the average to every long-term care resident. Mandating air conditioning, and I want to give the reporter from CBC they deserve the credit, mandating air conditioning in long-term care homes, investing over $100 million to train up 8,200 PSWs. Our government has approved nearly 1,200 PSWs in staffing, as I said earlier, for 27,000 new staff. Over the few short years we're investing more than $9.6 billion the previous government and then NDP that supported them for years never ever invested. Mr. Speaker, we're exceeding the NDP's own platform target of 30% increase in spending by 2028. That's what they were asking for. With our pandemic pay program alone we hired 8,636 staff. Thank you. Thank you, Premier. Thank you very much. The final supplementary. Thank you, Speaker. Nearly 4,000 people lost their lives to COVID-19 in long-term care and thousands of others lost their lives to neglect and dehydration in long-term care. The minister of long-term care has not taken any responsibility. She has shown no remorse for what happened. The government plan that the Premier likes to talk about is way too late. The commission said clearly that changes have to happen now not in 2025. So I asked the Premier again, will he do the right thing? Show the families, the survivors, the families of victims of COVID-19 in long-term care that he understands that his minister has no credibility that families don't trust her, they don't believe in her and fire her so that they can maybe find somebody to do the job properly. And to reply, the Premier. Well, you know something, Mr. Speaker. I'll stand up for my minister all day long because the leader of the opposition wasn't on the polls until midnight that I would be speaking to the minister day after day after day the conference calls her leading the charge making sure that the appropriate changes that were ignored for decades. For decades, Mr. Speaker. She showed leadership. It was a terrible, terrible situation. Order. It was an absolute tragedy that happened not just here in Ontario, around the world. We saw what happened in the U.S. We saw what happened across Canada from care. It was a tragedy, but Mr. Speaker we're going to fix it. We're going to make sure we fix it and again, Mr. Speaker I will take personal responsibility we will make sure we fix it we will make sure that we have rapid builds we're going to make sure we hit our target of 30,000 new beds over the next 10 years we're well on our way this will never happen again. Thank you. I have a question. The member for Brampton center. Thank you, Speaker. My question is to the minister of long-term care Speaker the minister has been running from the press gallery she's been hiding from her record of failure but you know who can't run Speaker and who can't hide the thousands of Ontarians that died in long-term care or the staff that had to watch painfully ask those folks they can't hide Speaker and this minister stood by and watched this all unfold will she finally show some leadership apologize to these families and staff and will she resign Thank you Thank you Speaker and I certainly understand the upset from the families and the commission has been very clear the report it indicates the long-standing issues the structural issues the staffing issues in long-term care and absolutely I've been very clear and repeated this numerous times that I do take responsibility for the well-being of residents in long-term care I do take responsibility for the staff and the family I came to politics because I recognized the importance of long-term care I recognized that for decades the measures weren't being taken so long before the pandemic came I was taking responsibility for this trying to get to this place to be able to make the changes necessary which we've done we already started with a staffing a staffing study the capacity building 15,000 new beds in 5 years 30,000 new beds in 10 years the commitment to 4 hours of direct care innovative programs like the community paramedicine to keep people in their own homes the infection prevention and control the integration with hospitals and public health we will continue to do this because we are committed to solving the problems in long-term care so that this doesn't with all due respect to the minister these families are not just upset they are dealing with trauma, with pain with mental health impacts that will last for much longer than I think this minister understands let's recap what we've heard from the minister this week she said that she didn't start the fire in long-term care she said that the death of 4,000 Ontarians was overdue and she said that she has nothing to apologize for she even said that it's everyday Ontarians who need to do some soul searching about why conservatives let their loved ones suffer and die from neglect this minister didn't take action when she was supposed to they didn't hire PSWs over the summer they didn't increase infection control measures in our long-term care homes they failed to ask the only one that needs to do some soul searching is this minister and she needs to resign when is she going to do that thank you I know very clearly what is true and what is not true we look at the response to the outbreaks in our homes we were working round the clock to address the capacity issues the overcrowding in long-term care to address the staffing making sure that we were taking every measure possible integrating the acute care sector into long-term care homes the public health inspections the public health efforts to support these homes and training people during this time to make sure it was necessary starting with the staffing plan that we had already undertaken and begun and hiring over 8600 people into long-term care with the pandemic pay with the efforts in infection prevention and control we were able to reduce the level of severity of the outbreaks and I'm so grateful to the hospitals for coming to our aid when it was necessary we were making sure all these leavers were being taken to advance long-term care on the staffing, the 4 hours of care on the capacity, on the innovation programs on the infection prevention thank you very much the next question the member for Northumberland Peter Burrowse thank you speaker a speaker over the past number of months as I and members in this legislature have been dealing with the very real conversations with constituents about variants of concern wreaking havoc in our communities Mr. Speaker I join members on this side of the house in making the very real and difficult decisions to protect the health and well-being of Ontarians throughout this province and I know that one thing has remained consistent since the very beginning our premier has led the charge in calling for the federal government to address these variants of concern at the source I know in fact in the last number of weeks our government has written a series of letters to the federal government for stricter measures at both land and air borders Mr. Speaker my question is to the minister of small business and red tape production my question is what was in those letters and what has the response been since we sent those letters thank you speaker the associate minister for small business and red tape production thank you very much Mr. Speaker and to the member for that question Mr. Speaker our government has done its part by restricting and Quebec borders unfortunately we have heard no official response from the federal government outlining the concerns that we have with our border and the holes in our border Mr. Speaker 90% of cases today are made up of variants of concern we have three very simple requests to the federal government ban all non-essential travel into Canada and specifically Ontario implement PCR testing for domestic flights and close the loopholes at our land borders Mr. Speaker it is absolutely incredible how individuals are flaunting the fact on social media that they are flying into Buffalo New York and walking across the border and putting the health and safety of all Ontarians we joined the premier and asking the federal government to have stronger measures and to secure our borders Mr. Speaker thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the minister for that answer Mr. Speaker many of my constituents are making very real sacrifices across our community we are seeing these sacrifices across Ontario Ontarians want their lives back yet we continue to see individuals flaunt loopholes at our land border crossings and getting around screening measures at the border that they know are in place to stop variants of concern from entering we must do more just yesterday the prime minister and health officials were asked about how many people are circumventing these rules at the land border in response the public health agency of Canada said they don't know they don't have a specific number well Mr. Speaker that's not good enough that's not good enough for the small businesses for the healthcare workers I'm not going to be writing making sacrifices each and every day so that we can get our lives back Speaker this is very concerning for Ontarians across this country and I'd like to know can the minister please respond to these concerns and what more are we doing to address this thank you Mr. Speaker since February over 5,000 people have tested positive for COVID air travel in the past two weeks we have over 150,000 people crossing our borders by land and that does not include commercial truck drivers we know that 90% of cases today in Ontario are variants of concern we've seen other countries across the world whether it's Australia New Zealand enact stronger measures at their borders to protect people in their own countries we have now confirmed cases of the B16-17 variant in Ontario British Columbia and Quebec we are asking and pleading with the federal government to close the loopholes to secure our borders so as we continue to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of people in Ontario that a recovery is not jeopardized we need the federal government to step up and secure our borders thank you the next question member for Niagara Senator my question is to the minister of long-term care the long-term care commission has revealed with anyone with a family member in a for-profit long-term care facility already knew that decades of neglect left long-term care residents vulnerable that this government was not prepared for a pandemic and that this government ignored the warnings of the risk that COVID posed to long-term care residents I heard from a constituent who's mother was placed into Royal Rose Place a for-profit long-term care home over the course of only five months she saw her mother's health deteriorate she had two ulcers constant urinary tract infections and was left in soiled diapers for hours complaint after complaint to the ministry went unaddressed until her mother passed just a few weeks ago when will this minister take responsibility for her government's lack of action and for what is happening to seniors in long-term care under her watch apologize and resign Mr. Long-term Care Thank you Speaker and you know I certainly I certainly want to reiterate the concerns over the long-standing issues in long-term care the tragedy that this was and is ongoing as we deal with this collectively in Ontario across Canada and around the world we continue to take measures long-term care and we initiated these as soon as we became a ministry and even before that as a government to understand the capacity issues to understand the staffing issues and that's exactly what we've been addressing and we were in touch with these homes on a regular basis monitoring what was going on and moving as quickly as we could using every lever possible and that's why we're committed to the four hours of direct care that's why we're investing unprecedented amounts in long-term care staffing for capacity building for infection prevention and control for integration with the hospital sector and hospital care and that's why we are committed because we've seen the tragedy and we know the neglect of this sector and we are committed to moving forward taking the measures necessary to address this we will fix it Thank you Thank you Speaker what is happening today rest on the shoulders of this government for the minister of long-term care to claim that she holds no responsibility for what's happening in long-term care is not believable I was contacted by another constituent whose mother was at Royal Rose Place her mother has dementia she got Covid along with 77 other residents in the 96 bed long-term care home she had great difficulty recovering and has since suffered seven falls and a few weeks ago broke her neck and I have complaints with the ministry to no avail no response just this week five staff and six more residents tested positive for the virus at Royal Rose Place will this minister stop shifting the blame take responsibility and resign Mr. Long-term Care Thank you Speaker and I have consistently taken responsibility and I have said numerous times I take full responsibility for the well-being of residents in long-term care of staff families and that is why I came to politics to address this long-standing issue the commissioners report the other generals report have been very clear about the long-standing issues and that's exactly what we're addressing with the staffing crisis that was preexisting with hiring over 8600 people into long-term care after the first wave with the pandemic pay over the summer making sure that we understood the issues of capacity and creating innovative programs looking at the infection prevention and control investing in that making sure that there was leads in the homes and IPAC hubs for this making sure that we were integrated with the public health units and the hospital sector and again I want to thank everyone that came to long-term cares aid during this very very tragic time and so I take full responsibility and our government takes responsibility for fixing the system that was broken and we are committed to doing that and we will continue to do this to demonstrate this whether it's capacity, staffing, infection prevention and control, innovative programs integration will continue to work on this Thank you The next question is for the premier my question is for the premier 3771 people died in long-term care more in the second wave than in the first wave so instead of blaming others I think the people of this province want a simple apology from their premier and from the minister of long-term care they want the minister to take the time to answer questions and to commit to a complete overhaul of the long-term care system starting with putting care before profits so speaker I have a simple yes or no question for the premier will the premier commit today to the people of this province that the government will immediately begin to implement all, all 85 recommendations for the long-term care commission and to reply on behalf of the government the minister of long-term care Thank you speaker and you know in terms of the commission on long-term care there are 85 recommendations they're all very insightful some of the recommendations were well on our way to completing or have completed some others will take more work and an understanding of how they can be implemented we're absolutely committed to the insightful recommendations and the report that the that they have provided to us the commissioners we are tremendously grateful for that insight and so yes we acknowledge the importance of the commissioners recommendations there's no question about that in terms of taking responsibility we have in fact more so than any other previous government in the history in the history of this province for long-term care Donna Duncan from the OLTC indicated that publicly and so when we look at what the mess was we are addressing this the staffing four hours of direct care the capacity the innovative programs making sure that we never let this happen again and so we will do that thank you a supplementary question Speaker sadly for the people who lost loved ones in long-term care homes I take it from that response that the answer is no it's one thing to say yes we acknowledge recommendations it's another thing to say that we will immediately begin to implement recommendations in the commission report the working conditions in long-term care homes must be improved in order to better attract recruit develop and retain staff this includes guaranteeing PSW's full-time work and living wages so speaker if the government is not going to commit today to implementing all 85 recommendations in the long-term care commission report will the minister at least commit today to extending and making it permanent the pandemic pay increase which is set to expire on June 30 minister of long-term care thank you speaker I think the member opposite is saying it in a different way I have said that we will look at all those recommendations and some of them are already done some of them need to be done we have to understand how to do them and so absolutely when we look at the PSW's in our long-term care system they are the backbone and I will say they are also the heart of our system and so we have been very supportive of the PSW's to understand what we can do to help them with the pandemic pay with the temporary wage increase and looking at ways that we can make sure that they are supported and recognized for the important work that they do and the premier has been very clear and so while we work through this process while we take the insights of the commission and the auditor general to heart we are committed to addressing these long-standing issues like no other government in the history of this province applause the next question the member for Northumberland Peterborough South thank you speaker my question is for the minister of small business and red tape production speaker I just got an email from a constituent literally just got an email they were asking about the leadership that they've seen from the premier on border measures but they were confused because they hadn't seen anything from the federal government and I quote thanks Dave we are flying into Buffalo in June and walking across the border to avoid the mandatory three day stay at a hotel right here Mr. Speaker we know that these loopholes are being exposed we know that this is how variants of concern are entering our country 90% of daily cases are variants of concern and the dominant strain is the UK variant of concern when we look abroad we see the UK that has imposed travel restrictions and banned travel from over 40 countries worldwide we know Australia is limiting travel to domestic nationals only or nationals of New Zealand I don't understand why certain opposition members and political party would choose to make light of these very serious issues these very serious concerns that the premier of this province is flagging thank you take your seat thank you associate minister of small business and red tape production thank you very much speaker and I agree with the member opposite any political party or leader that is against combating new variants that are coming into this province which are deadlier and are more dismissible and making it about racial politics is completely wrong are the premiers of the Atlantic bubble Atlantic provinces racist for implementing the Atlantic bubble is the prime minister of New Zealand racist for calling for stronger and enacting stronger measures at the border is the prime minister of Australia racist for enacting stronger measures at the border no this is about protecting the city of Brampton I put forward a unanimous motion supported by all members of council Air travel into this country this is nothing about race this is about protecting our province it's about protecting cities like Brampton it's about protecting the deadlier variants of concern and that's why we need stronger measures at our border we can start the clock supplementary thank you speaker to the minister for that answer you know as we heard members opposite liberal members heckle on why aren't you doing it this really speaks to what we need to see across this province we've seen our municipalities link arms I had 10 municipal leaders two indigenous leaders in our community write a joint letter calling on the federal government to work with the province to implement stricter border measures we've seen as the member mentioned unanimous motions moved in some of the most diverse communities in this province because what we all understand is that this isn't a matter of race this is a matter of working together to protect the health and well-being of the people we have the honor to serve in this place we have a premier who continues to stand up to call on the federal government to fix these loopholes to call on the federal government to implement mandatory PCR testing so speaker I know there are a suite of measures we can use including PCR testing can the minister please speak to what more measures we can do to protect the health and well-being of the people we have the honor to serve in this place thank you Thank you very much Mr. Speaker we know that since February over 5,000 cases positive cases of COVID-19 have come through travel Mr. Speaker that doesn't even account for the thousands of people who have traveled to go across the community there are holes in our border and we need those loopholes to be addressed the premier has called our ministers have written three letters to the federal government and have received no response our ask is simple close the loopholes at our land borders let's ensure that there are PCR testing for domestic flights and let's also ensure that international travel into Canada specifically Ontario is restricted we've done our part at the Manitoba and Quebec borders we restricted travel by land and by water we need the federal government to step up and to secure our borders so we can continue to fight this third wave and we can continue to vaccinate people and get back and support our small businesses get the economy opening but we need the federal government to act and secure our borders immediately Thank you Thank you speaker my question to the minister of education as we confirmed yesterday the RCMP is investigating the shadowy group bond working families for breaking election laws we know this group has deep ties to the premier and the minister of education we also know the premier and the minister happened to attend a Florida hockey game in December 2018 with the group's chair the speaker I'm sure the snacks were wonderful in the box seats however Ontarians deserve to know if the minister of education has anything to add but he avoided answering my questions yesterday has the minister of education met with the RCMP regarding this investigation and if so what did he tell them Government House Leader Thank you very much Mr. Speaker as I said yesterday it's my understanding that the chief electoral officer conducted an inquiry into this and has since been referred off to authorities I have full confidence that they'll they have all the resources and whatever they need to conduct a thorough investigation supplementary back the member for north spot the clock the member for northumberland Peterborough south will come to order start the clock supplementary thank you speaker to the premier the premier's credit favors behind closed doors with the same people who are involved in the shadow group ever since he was elected global males revealed that the group uses the premier's own lawyer Steven Thiel as legal counsel the premier gave one of the group's former directors Quinto Anabali a plumb position as the LCBO's vice chair and now the government has used the pandemic as cover to cut development deals for the chair of this group Michael de Gasparis the same developer who hosted the premier at a Florida hockey game remember those snacks will the premier tell the Ontario government the people of Ontario what he knows about this whole mess will he ensure his government cuts all time with the people behind this group while they're under RCMP investigation thank you thank you very much speaker the court's honorable member will recall that I think it was in June of last year elections Ontario very clear that there was no involvement of any party in this legislature with respect to this particular group but having said that Mr. Speaker the elections Ontario has referred it and I'm sure the resources are in place to thoroughly thoroughly investigate it Mr. Speaker to ensure that our elections continue to remain safe Mr. Speaker and that all of those who participated in it are doing so in the proper fashion thank you thank you Mr. Speaker my question is to the minister of long-term care since the release of the long-term care commission's final report the government has reminded us of how many new PSW's are being trained and hired to support our long-term care homes however what they didn't address is the shocking staff retention rate which is central to the issue and temporary wages increase won't do it recommendations were made by the commissioner public inquiry and were repeated in the long-term care commission's final report Mr. Speaker as the minister has said herself PSW's are the backbone of long-term care homes and I couldn't agree more so will the minister commit and I believe it's worth repeating the ask to providing PSW's safe and adequate working conditions and conformity with the long-term care commission's latest recommendation so that we may be effective in attracting and retaining much needed PSW's thank you for that question minister long-term care thank you speaker and thank you very much for that important question we acted very early in our mandate as a government to address long-term care and we created the staffing strategy the staffing plan and eventually it emerged as a better place to work and a better place to live and so that is exactly working on those four hours of direct care per resident per day making sure that we are supporting our PSW's in our long-term care homes because as the member opposite has mentioned it is about retention when we look at the 8600 and more that we were able to hire in with the pandemic pay it needs to be about retaining them as well and we're training over 17,000 right now in terms of PSW's making sure that the staff is there for the hours of direct care and as we know when we see the shortages during this tragic pandemic how this impacts the staff that are there so we're taking the measures to address this we're taking the measures to support our PSW's and we will continue to take measures to make sure that they are supported and the environment and conditions that they work in are optimum for their safety thank you the supplementary question my colleagues in this House have been made it clear that while previous government took significant steps towards improving long-term care much more could or should have been done my colleagues and I can recognize past shortfalls the minister should be able to do the same the loss of nearly 4,000 Ontarians living into working in long-term care is completely heartbreaking and the minister must admit that the government didn't do enough the families and workers affected by these losses deserve a government that takes ownership and commit to do better according to evidence presented in the report the government failed to adequately protect long-term care residents during the pandemic can the minister commit to do better by implementing the recommendation the government itself asked for thank you and thank you again those recommendations from the commissioners our very insightful and we very much appreciate them it has to be about making things better that's what we've settled along in terms of our efforts we began immediately with the staffing with the capacity issues making sure that we had the innovative programs to allow people to stay in their homes as long as possible and as long as they could if they wish to do so this is part of the staffing plan for those 4 hours of direct care our staff are supported and looked after this is all part of a complex issue in terms of how we address an aging population create the staffing necessary for this aging population and these measures were long neglected could we move faster as a government that has been our whole intent COVID moved faster do I regret that we couldn't move faster and I acknowledge the responsibility that we have each and every one of us to make things better in long-term care particularly myself and particularly our government which we are tasked to do which we will do thank you the next question the member for Ottawa, West Napien thank you speaker my question is to the minister of health in my riding and across Ottawa I hear from many constituents like childcare workers who cannot work from home they are anxious to get their vaccines so they can continue to provide for their children can the minister please tell this house what we are doing to support these important workers minister health thank you to the member for Ottawa West Napien for this important question speakers starting tomorrow May 6th at 8am even more Ontarians who cannot work from home will be eligible to book their vaccination appointments through the provincial booking system these include remaining elementary school workers workers responding to critical events food manufacturing and distribution workers remaining individuals working in licensed childcare settings foster care agenda workers agriculture and farm workers Mr. Speaker as more vaccine supply becomes available from the federal government we will continue to expand the list of who is eligible to receive the vaccine including more critical workers who cannot work from home thank you Mr. Speaker thank you for that response despite an inconsistent vaccine supply to date our government has continued to build a solid foundation in Ontario's vaccine rollout with a focus on age and risk allowing us to reach our most vulnerable populations and have a measurable impact for example I was particularly proud when Ontario became the first province in Canada to prioritize individuals with developmental disabilities for vaccines as part of our phase to rollout Mr. Speaker can the Minister of Health please update this House on the status of our vaccination program for the month of May thank you Mr. Speaker Mr. Health well thank you again to the member for that question and I am very pleased to report that last week we achieved our goal of administering first doses of COVID-19 to 40% of Ontario's 18 years of age and older as of today over 5.6 million doses have been administered in just two days since we opened up booking eligibility to more groups of Ontarians over 700,000 appointments have been made through the provincial booking system on Monday alone 420,000 appointments were made and the system held up importantly Mr. Speaker over 91% of Ontarians over aged 80 have received at least one dose over 25,000 first and second doses have been administered in 31 fly-in first nations communities and Moussine and 95% of long-term care residents are now fully vaccinated Mr. Speaker I strongly encourage everyone to sign up to receive a vaccine as soon as it's their turn thank you Mr. Speaker my question is to the minister of long-term care Speaker I read the report for the long-term care COVID-19 commission with great sadness Speaker in our way of life as Indigenous people it is unimaginable that we ask our elders to leave home on a plane to be looked after by other people but this is the reality because we have so few long-term care beds in Kuwait we desperately need more long-term care beds across the region and far north of Ontario Speaker I hear these numbers being thrown around 15,000, 30,000 why hasn't the government not taken any action to get 76 76 long-term care beds they promised to Sulakot-Minyan Health Centre in 2018 Minister of long-term care Thank you Speaker and I appreciate the question from the member opposite during our last round of projects, 80 projects in that included projects for the Indigenous communities because we believe that this is a very important area as well as the Francophone communities and other groups that we recognize the importance of being able to serve people in their own language serve people with communities of care that are consistent with their cultural needs we understand that as a government and that's exactly why we've included those in the last round of projects and we'll continue to have this top of mind Thank you for mentioning that And the supplementary Minister we cannot measure the impact of approximately 4,000 deaths in long-term care from COVID to those families when I think about that number the number is nearly the whole municipality of Sulakot where I come from Speaker, the commission's report said the lack of Indigenous long-term care home leads to elders especially to those who speak their language being cut off from the love, the contact of their families and communities I've said this before Mr. Speaker the elders leave and die alone far away from their families where they aren't flown home until they have died how cruel when with this government fulfill its promise Pamir was in Sulakot actually in 2018 when the promise that was made three years ago and invest in culturally appropriate long-term care homes for outwilders Thank you Speaker and again thank you to the member opposite this government is absolutely committed to making sure that we look after the Indigenous communities and the Francophone communities and other groups that have specific needs and that was also clear in the commission report as you've mentioned this is something that our government is endeavouring to make up for last time from previous decades we'll continue to keep this in the forefront and address these issues Thank you Next question, the member for York Centre Thank you Speaker this morning Ontario soccer sent a letter to the Premier urging that the social and physical neglect of Indigenous kids must stop Ontario soccer stressed that organised and controlled sports are safe for Ontario's youth and that it's time to take the mental health of 3 million Ontario children and youth seriously. Today I'll be participating with half a million soccer players in the Let Us Play campaign and I encourage everyone to take a picture with hashtag Let Us Play posted on social media and send it to your MPP However yesterday the health minister said the backlog of surgeries would have to be worked through before the ban on outdoor sports and other restrictions can be lifted My question to the Minister of Health will she listen to all the experts who unanimously say that the outdoors are safe and to quote Ontario soccer stop the social and physical neglect of Ontario's kids and hashtag Let Us Play Minister of Health Thank you to the member for the question we certainly encourage people especially as the weather gets nicer to be outside to go for a walk to go for a run to walk the dog but organised sports right now are not something that we can encourage based on the medical advice that we've received from the experts that if the levels of transmission are still too high in our communities we need to make sure that people stay at home as much as possible the levels are starting to go down but it's still too early to say because of the variance of concern we want to make sure that everyone stays healthy and protected even as we increase our vaccination rate but we really encourage people to please go out please get your exercise please let children run out and be outside but right at this moment organised sports are not something that the medical experts have advised that we should allow to have happened because of the high risk of transmission Thank you Thank you back to the Minister Speaker it's time for another chapter in the adventures of Stiney Brown in Ontario land during his modelling briefing on April 16 which called for the most recent round of restrictions Dr Stiney Brown said that under the strictest measures Ontario will peak around April 28 with 7000 daily cases strictest measures were not implemented because almost every police force in the province thwarted this government's attempts to impose martial law but on April 28 despite looser measures if that's even possible under 3500 daily cases or less than half than Dr Stiney Brown predicted it's on the basis of Browns and the Ontario science table faulty modelling that millions of lives are being ruined daily including those of 3 million children and you referenced in the letter by Ontario soccer so why does the minister continue to make far reaching decisions based on junk modelling instead of firing Stiney Brown and the Ontario science table for being wrong time and time again Minister of Health Thank you very much speaker well I'm not sure why the member is ridiculing the efforts of some of the medical experts that are providing us with advice but we are receiving advice for a number of people who are epidemiologists who understand the issues here they are providing us with their best advice with respect to levels of transmission what we can expect in terms of hospitalization intensive care units we have acted on the basis of the advice that we've received we've built up our capacity in our hospitals we've started our vaccination program we've extended 50% of our doses from each allocation to go into the hotspot areas we take very seriously the medical advice that we've been receiving since the beginning of this pandemic and we will continue to do so Thank you speaker my question is for the Premier recently the government announced that adults 18 and older living in three Ottawa postal codes will be able to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment one of the postal codes is K2V in Canada which is below the provincial average in terms of COVID incidence rates meanwhile priority neighbourhoods identified by Ottawa Public Health and Ottawa Centre including Centre Town West and Carlington are nowhere to be found on the government's priority list local city councillors speaker have all questioned K2V's inclusion as a priority area and Ottawa's medical officer of health Dr Vera Etch has confirmed she had no involvement in this decision so can the Premier kindly explain why a postal code ranked 11th in Ottawa for COVID cases per capita is being prioritized instead of some of our hardest hit communities Well yes I can certainly respond to that question K2V in Ottawa the pandemic to January had 44% more COVID-19 ICU cases per 100,000 than the provincial average as well this postal code saw 25% more COVID-19 deaths this is combined with the postal code seeing 30% more COVID-19 cases per 10,000 when compared to the provincial average over 40% of its population was made up of racialized communities where vaccine hesitancy was a concern however I would also say that in addition to the 114 hotspot areas that have been identified for us by the medical experts that the local area the local Ottawa public health unit is also able to use their allocation in order to identify their own hotspot areas and be able to deal with them in the same way so there are significant volumes that are being granted not just the 50% that are going to the hotspot areas but also to the public health units themselves and the chief medical officer of health in Ottawa is able to use whatever percentage of that allocation that comes to them to use in the hotspot areas that have been identified in Ottawa supplementary thank you speaker I confess I don't understand the research basis of that response because people in Ottawa want to know why a postal code represented by this government's minister of long-term care was chosen when it is actually not a COVID hotspot by any objective measure made clear to our office in Ottawa Centre let me demonstrate some of the people asking these questions people like Karen Seacord who manages the Parkdale Food Centre her staff work on a daily basis with many of our city's most marginalized residents newcomers people living in poverty she wants to know when her staff will be vaccinated because people are already getting sick as they're trying to do this important work she wants to know why K2V which is low on our COVID hotspot in our city has been prioritized and if it's a coincidence that this writing happened to be represented by a cabinet minister in this government when will the government start focusing on getting vaccines to the people who need them most instead of playing politics during a pandemic I'm going to apply the minister of health thank you speaker and through you Mr. Speaker I would say to the member opposite that any suggestion that these hotspots were identified on any basis other than the medical evidence what the medical experts have suggested to us is absolutely absurd this decision was made based on the advice that was obtained from public health I've already given you the specific data about why K2V was chosen it was chosen on the basis of hospitalizations higher levels of COVID those were the medical decisions upon which this was based that is what we're dealing with but as I also indicated it is clear that the chief medical officer of health in Ottawa could also identify hotspots and be able to allocate doses accordingly that's what's being done by all 34 public health unit regions across Ontario and it's certainly available to be used by the chief medical officer in Ottawa as well question? the member for Ottawa thank you very much Mr. Speaker and about five days ago the long-term care commission dropped a very sobering report and the minister and the premier have failed to accept responsibility for decisions that were made between the first and the second wave families are looking for answers but perhaps the premier is distracted we learned yesterday that the RCMP is now investigating a number of on-working groups attack ads against teachers ads that were paid for by his friends and now we heard yesterday that the premier's pick for OLG chair has had to step down because there's another police investigation and the more things change the more they stay the same Speaker, Ontario's families deserve better they deserve a government that's not creating its own chaos we can't address things like the long-term care report or listen to the COVID-19 science table and now we hear that we may not be sitting next week the government has created this chaos so speakers through you is the government prepared to lead this province to the third wave or have they created too much chaos for themselves and want to get out of this place to reply the government house leader I guess it's not unique that the liberal members would be making up stuff they did it for 15 years as a government let me say very clearly to the member but let me say very clearly to the member opposite what we inherited was a system that was broken not only in long-term care but in health care this was a member whose leader sat at a cabinet table for many many years and left us with an ICU capacity that was one of the lowest in Canada and the liberals failed they left us with a system that hadn't been reformed for years their failure instead of investing the billions of dollars that the federal government or Stephen Harper were transferring to the province of Ontario for health care they used only half of that money and transferred the rest to who knows what they built 400 600 long-term care beds under the last 10 years of their mandate by every single measure the liberals left us in such a situation that we had to play defense for a year we are now on the offense and we are winning this battle all Ontarians are winning this battle there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it won't be because of the work that the liberals did it will be in spite of that work thank you for being no further business this morning this house stands in recess I believe until 3pm