Selected Ontario Legislative Assembly Hansard
May 2003

This page contains selected debates on health care issues in the Ontario Legislative Assembly. For more information, please contact Karen Lee, Corporate Information (OMA). The entire Hansard discussion is available at the Ontario Legislative Assembly's Hansard Homepage at:
<URL: http://www.ontla.on.ca>
 
 

ORAL QUESTIONS

SARS

Ms Sandra Pupatello (Windsor West): My question is for the Minister of Health. On March 26, the Premier declared SARS a provincial emergency under the emergency planning act. As you know, that declaration gave the province the power to direct and control local governments, facilities and equipment to ensure necessary services are provided. At the time, you said that doing so was necessary to protect the health, safety and welfare of Ontario residents. Premier Eves lifted that emergency on May 18. Minister, given the latest outbreak, why have you not moved the province to the highest state of alert?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I thank the member for the question and I can report to her that a number of the aspects of the infrastructure that one found in the provincial operations centre have been reactivated. Dr Young, for instance, is involved on a daily basis with our review of the situation. Indeed, a lot of the infrastructure that he and I and Dr D'Cunha -- all three of us and in fact the people of Ontario -- relied upon has been activated over the past week.

There are a couple of things that are different this time around. First, we did not have directives and protocols in place at the time, but we do have them in place now. Second, this Legislature had not passed Bill 1 at the time, and we have passed it now. That certainly gives us, we believe, enough room to do the right thing and ensure the people of Ontario are protected.

Ms Pupatello: We have a copy now of your "new normal" directives. You probably have a copy as well, and I'm sure you know what they say. They say that hospitals that don't currently have SARS aren't required to screen visitors, staff or even potential patients for SARS until after they are admitted. On page 6, "Visitors entering the facilities are expected to have self-screened based on signage posted at the hospital." It goes on to say, "Staff, patient and visitor screening is not required except as stated below."

Minister, the "new normal" is now becoming just a slogan. As far as screening for SARS at hospitals is concerned, you've implemented the old status quo. Why have you let your guard down in this regard?

Hon Mr Clement: The honourable member should know that is not the case. There has been a constant stream of conversation and directives since the most recent flare-up has occurred, over and above the "new normal" directives, so what she is suggesting is not accurate.

Ms Pupatello: We have the dates of the directives listed, and we have a list of all the directives as they've been issued from your office.

When Ernie Eves dropped the medical emergency, the provincial operations centre, which was the centre for quarterbacking the province's SARS effort, was directed to scale back their efforts. They were, for example, no longer monitoring patient transfers. One of the health professionals we spoke with this morning, one who had been working with the provincial operations centre, said that it wasn't just scaled down, it was all but shut down. Their function was turned over to the Ministry of Health.

Who directed the provincial operations centre to scale back their work on SARS? Is it now up and operational again, and if it isn't, what will it take for it to be up and operational again?

Hon Mr Clement: There is a minor granule of truth in your question, but the truth is that all those operations you speak of were moved to the Finch Avenue site of the Ministry of Health. They still exist. They still are tracking in the health care system. That has been powered up, of course, since the knowledge of the new outbreak has occurred. It would be wrong to suggest there is no provincial coordination. It would be wrong to suggest we have powered down. It would be wrong to suggest we don't have the best and the brightest minds in the province working on the situation. So I hope that gives you some comfort.

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): New question?

Ms Pupatello: On April 29 -- that would be well after the first outbreak of SARS -- Ernie Eves promised, "Six mobile rapid-response teams will be created to deal with outbreaks of SARS." We're presuming that means other outbreaks, not the first one. What is the status of those mobile rapid-response teams, and how are they helping us deal with these latest outbreaks?

Hon Mr Clement: The teams exist, and pursuant to the determination of both the local medical officers of health and also of course through the provincial medical officer of health, they can be used on an as-necessary basis.

Ms Pupatello: It's interesting that we cannot find anyone to tell us anything about these mobile rapid-response teams. No one knows where they are or what they are doing, if they in fact exist. They were announced on April 29 by the Premier, and so far we can't find them. You called this a priority. You said it would be done and it hasn't.

Let me read from the press release of exactly one month ago: "A priority is to reinforce the public health care system to continue the battle against SARS. The province will immediately expand staffing in public health surveillance, epidemiology and laboratory areas. Six mobile rapid-response teams will be created to deal with outbreaks of SARS." Not only did you scale back the provincial operations centre, you've got hospitals now that don't screen for SARS. And after all that, you didn't keep your promise to communities for the rapid-response teams. When are we going to get our act together and get this thing under control?

Hon Mr Clement: Let me correct the honourable member again. I did indicate that we do have the infrastructure in place, including many of the aspects of the POC that she was so concerned about in her initial question. I do wish to inform her again that the SWAT teams do exist and that they were put into use. We were having a discussion with the director of infectious disease control in the city of Toronto, where she indicated to us that they were being put to use in various aspects of Toronto's challenges. The fact of the matter is, the honourable member is wrong in her insinuations.

Ms Pupatello: We don't have to tell you or this House how dangerous a disease SARS is. It will take a co-operative effort of all three levels of government. Minister, you know full well that this House has been more than co-operative. We've assisted in the quick passage of legislation to deal with SARS. From the beginning, we've worked with you to push the federal government for assistance as well. What we need to do our jobs is information, and that is information that is becoming extremely difficult to obtain.

Back in April, James Young travelled to Washington to answer questions from a US Senate committee. We think that perhaps we should have that same opportunity. Will you agree right now in this House to make these individuals, Dr James Young and Dr Colin D'Cunha, available to a committee of this House in this next week, available to members of this House to ask very pertinent and detailed questions about the status of our battle against SARS?

Hon Mr Clement: Let me answer that in two parts. First of all, I'm glad the honourable member raised the issue of how her party and her leader wants to help us make sure that the federal government gives its responsibility. I have a letter addressed to the Prime Minister that could be signed by Dalton McGuinty, asking the Prime Minister to help us deal with the SARS situation. If a page could come over here, I would like Mr McGuinty to sign this letter. Please make sure he signs the letter.

I would like to quote from Mr McGuinty this morning at CFRB where he said, "I don't think there's a lot to be gained in finger-pointing in terms of what happened with the second outbreak." I agree with Dalton McGuinty. Why don't you?

Ms Pupatello: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: It's very important that you know that my leader sent a letter a month and a half ago.

The Speaker: I'm afraid we can't get into that debate.

DISEASE REPORTING

Mr Howard Hampton (Kenora-Rainy River): My question to the Minister of Health -- I want to review the definition game.

I want to review with you that the World Health Organization says you've been playing with the number of SARS cases in Ontario. But I want to go back to nine months ago, when West Nile was starting to cause illness in Ontario.

On August 30 last year, your government announced the first three probable cases of West Nile, but in the days leading up to that announcement, Dr Neil Rau was pleading with you to admit that there were many more West Nile cases. He warned you that you were under-reporting the number of West Nile cases. You didn't heed his warnings. People went on suspecting they were all right. Later that summer, many people became ill and some people died.

Now we fast-forward to the last few days, and what do we find? The World Health Organization says that once again you're playing with definitions and classifications and under-reporting the number of cases of SARS. Why would you do that, Minister?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): Mr Speaker, I don't know what he's talking about. The fact of the matter is, we report according to Health Canada standards, and if Health Canada wants to have a definitional discussion with WHO, it's their right and capacity to do so.

I want to assure you and, through you, the people of Ontario that whether you're a probable case of SARS or a suspected case of SARS, we treat you the same way, which is in fact at the highest clinical expertise to make sure that if you're sick, you get better.

Mr Hampton: Minister, when the WHO has to phone officials in Ontario and say to them, and when Dr Donald Low says very publicly, that the effect of your game of semantics and definitions is to under-report the number of cases of SARS, I think you've got a serious problem. And do you know what? I think the people of Ontario know you've got a serious problem.

What's worse, this is exactly what you did with West Nile. A recent study from the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that while you were telling people, "Oh, we've only got so many cases of West Nile," in fact there were many, many more cases and a lot of people died.

Why, after the episode you went through with West Nile last summer of under-reporting the number of cases, when medical experts told you you were under-reporting them, are you engaged in the same game of under-reporting through semantics and definitions now?

Hon Mr Clement: Again, let me put it on record. We will use whatever definition Health Canada and the WHO arrive at. WHO has told us, and told me directly -- I don't know when was the last time you talked to an official at WHO, but I've talked to them directly this week. They said they admire Ontario's transparency, they admire our competency in sending them data real-time, and they wanted to thank us for it. That was Dr Heymann, who is in charge of infectious disease control for the World Health Organization.

As for the West Nile virus, I can only say to the honourable member that as soon as we had information and as soon as it went through the double-testing protocol, which was the protocol of Health Canada when it came to West Nile virus, we posted it on our Internet site. Everyone else knew that. Why didn't you?

WEST NILE VIRUS

Mr AL McDonald (Nipissing): I'd like to direct my question to the Minister of Health. As you are aware, many people are feeling uneasy about the presence of West Nile virus across the province. For several weeks now, tension has been building about the potential dangers of this disease and what can be done to contain it. In fact, many of my constituents in Nipissing have expressed concerns to me about what we're doing to protect them from the West Nile virus. I know that you've been working with our public health officials to develop a plan to minimize the risks posed by this virus. In fact, I understand that the Premier recently made a significant announcement. Could you please ease the minds of my constituents and all Ontarians by explaining the significance of this announcement?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I'd like to thank the honourable member for his question and of course assure him that this government is taking the necessary steps to protect the public from the West Nile virus.

A key part of Premier Eves's announcement is that we're committing $20 million this year to pay for 100% of the larviciding costs and 50% of the costs of application. That's the kind of leadership we're showing and that the Premier is showing. This brings our West Nile virus spending to combat the disease to $33 million this year in total, which is part of our commitment to spend $100 million over the next five years.

The member should know that the Pest Management Regulatory Agency of Health Canada tests and registers all larvicides used across the country, as does our own Ministry of the Environment. Applicators are required to be trained and licensed by the MOE, and all communities must received notice from their local public health units before pellets are dropped. In fact, I was happy to receive a letter from the association of municipalities supporting our announcement.

Mr McDonald: I'm happy to hear that you've received support for this great announcement. I want to ensure that the people of Nipissing know about the rest of the comprehensive plan that we've laid out for dealing with this disease. Provincial standards for larviciding is only one of the initiatives to fight West Nile, and I understand that we've unveiled our made-in-Ontario lab, which you just announced this month. Could you elaborate on the details of this made-in-Ontario solution to expanding laboratory testing, and could you also describe some of our other forward-moving steps to combat the West Nile virus in Ontario?

Hon Mr Clement: I will try to accommodate the honourable member in the minute that I have. Certainly, earlier this month I did announce that testing for West Nile virus can now be done right here in Ontario. Over the last few months, Ontario's Central Public Health Laboratory has expanded its capacity so that waiting times are significantly reduced on the testing. We'll have a quick turnaround of three days now, and this means that health care professionals will have the information they need very quickly for their patients.

This is part of our seven-point plan for the West Nile virus attack. We launched our public education campaign and sent brochures to every household in Ontario. Our new early warning system will better track human cases. Local public health units are already in the field tracking infected birds. A study is almost done to determine how many people were exposed to West Nile virus last year, and research continues to be done to combat the disease in our midst.

That is the kind of leadership that this government is showing. Our seven-point plan is state-of-the-art and is the best in Canada, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that people have the best protection possible against the West Nile virus.

PETITIONS

MEDICAL REVIEW COMMITTEE

Mr Peter Kormos (Niagara Centre): "To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

"Whereas the OHIP schedule of benefits is often unclear about its definitions of good medical practice, causing problems for patients and their physicians;

"The medical review committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons has been aggressively clawing back payments to hard-working, conscientious doctors and thereby exacerbating physician shortages in the province;

"We, the undersigned, request the Minister of Health to suspend further reviews by the medical review committee pending a negotiated agreement of an unambiguous schedule of benefits with representatives of affected practising physicians."

It's signed by hundreds, including myself.
 
 

ORAL QUESTIONS

NURSES

Mr Dalton McGuinty (Leader of the Opposition): I didn't get an answer on that one, Speaker. I'll try another minister now, the Minister of Health.

Minister, SARS, as you well know, continues to devastate us. Front-line workers, as you know, are doing their very best, but your failure to hire full-time nurses is making things worse. There are at least 12,000 registered nurses in Ontario working at two or more jobs in two or more health care settings. That means that nurses can and are in fact becoming suspected carriers of SARS from one health care setting to another.

You may be aware that there was a nurse at North York General who is suspected to have contracted SARS there. She also happens to work at the Toronto Rehab. Not only is the North York General now closed but the Toronto Rehab, as a result of this nurse working in both locations, has now closed two wings and quarantined a total of five nurses at home.

Since the outbreak, you have done absolutely nothing to hire more full-time nurses in Ontario. Why not, Minister?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I want to assure the honourable member and members of this Legislature that it is a top priority of this government to hire more nurses -- full-time nurses, part-time nurses, nurses who want to make that choice. The fact is that in the last five years there have been 12,833 new nursing positions as a result of a direct infusion of $800 million by the provincial government, and 8,555 of those are full-time positions. Indeed, there are more full-time nursing positions in Ontario than at any time since statistics have been kept, at least in the last 18 years, and they are the highest-paid nurses in the Dominion of Canada.

Of course, there is more to do, and I certainly indicate to the honourable member that that's why we want to graduate 8,000 new nurses over the next three years. That's why we'll pay the tuition for those who want to work in underserviced areas. That is our plan for more nurses in Ontario.

Mr McGuinty: Here's the truth on this score, Minister. First of all, you've done absolutely nothing to hire more full-time nurses since the first outbreak of SARS. Second, we have the second-fewest nurses per capita in comparison to all the other provinces right across the country.

We now learn that instead of hiring full-time nurses in our public hospitals, you're bringing in part-time, private emergency nurses at a cost two to three times what it would take to hire a full-time nurse, fully employed inside the public health care system. We learned last night that North York General Hospital brought in 10 nurses from the private firm Med-Emerg, at a cost of between $70 and $100 an hour. That money could and should have been spent to hire full-time nurses.

Minister, I ask again: why are you not hiring full-time nurses in Ontario, especially since the first outbreak of SARS?

Hon Mr Clement: I don't think we should make apologies for ensuring that as a result of quarantine and sickness we have the right nurses, doctors and other medical practitioners to deal with SARS cases or with the other 99% of what occurs in our health care system. That, I think, is prudent and wise to do. It's the right thing to do from a clinical perspective and from a public policy perspective.

If the honourable member was interested in solving this problem, his point should be that we need long-term strategies. That's why we are graduating 8,000 nurses from our post-secondary system, that's why we're ensuring they have free tuition if they want to practise in underserviced areas, that's why we're the first province in Canada to invest substantially in nurse practitioners -- all part of our comprehensive, long-term nursing strategy -- and that's why those strategies are going to work.

I would say to any prospective nurse in Ontario, throughout Canada or anywhere in the world, "You are welcome in Ontario. We have an excellent health care system. We have the highest remuneration" --

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): The minister's time is up.

Mr McGuinty: Minister, you've had eight long years to develop a long-term strategy. We're not in the position today where we can capably cope with these kinds of medical emergencies. Your strategy with respect to nurses has been to fire them by the thousands. You cost Ontario taxpayers $400 million in severance costs to fire nurses. Nurses by the thousands now working outside Ontario said they would love to come back to our province. Seventy per cent said they would come back to our province on condition that they had full-time work. They're not here. We don't have enough here because you're not giving them full-time work.

I ask you again, Minister: why is it that after eight years we find ourselves in a position where we can barely cope with these medical emergencies? Why have we ended up with the second-fewest nurses per capita in the country? Why are we hiring private, part-time nurses at a cost of $70 to $100 an hour? Why have you failed to ensure that we have enough full-time nurses on the job in Ontario to help us manage SARS?

Hon Mr Clement: I can only tell you --

The Speaker: Order. Thank you.

Sorry, Minister.

Hon Mr Clement: I think the honourable member should have a reality check on his own party's record when they were in government. In Hansard, it was indicated on May 16, 1990, that 80 placements were cut down to 35 placements "as a direct result of Liberal policies for funding."

The Toronto Star headline for May 9, 1989: "30-year Nurse Blames Dad's Death on Nursing Shortages at Hospital."

The Windsor Star, January 25, 1989: "Most nurses are disillusioned. They want more money, more respect and more say in decision-making."

Those were the headlines in the province of Ontario under a Liberal government. We can't afford a Liberal government for reasons of taxes, we can't afford a Liberal government with respect to reckless spending and we certainly can't afford a Liberal government because of their prior attitude and their record when it comes to supporting the nursing profession in Ontario. We need a government that cares, and we care.

SARS

Mr Howard Hampton (Kenora-Rainy River): My question is to the Minister of Health. In reference to SARS, you now talk about a "new normal," but it looks like the same old thing. On May 20, nurses at two hospitals raised concerns about possible SARS cases. They worried about their safety and urged precautions. That was two days before you closed St John's and three days before a quarantine order.

We now have experts saying your government let the guard against SARS down too early. They say you've been playing with semantics and classifications about what constitutes a SARS case when you should have been putting the safety of our health care workers and our patients first.

Minister, why did it take three days to put in place a quarantine order after nurses told you they suspected SARS?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I will answer factually, despite the fact that the question was not factual.

The simple answer is that as soon as the public health branch of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and I, as the minister, learned of this, we swung into action. That occurred Thursday afternoon and Thursday evening. We had a press conference to let the world know what was going on by Thursday evening. So the answer to your question is, as soon as we learned of a situation that we were not aware of before, we acted.

Mr Hampton: One would think that with such a very serious disease, it shouldn't take three days to put in place a quarantine. These are the very hospital workers who worked themselves virtually to exhaustion in the first place.

We found out something else that is disturbing. We're told now that it's all hands on deck, that screening is to be put in place, but at the very time this is supposedly happening, hospital workers at Humber River Regional Hospital, Finch and Church Street sites, were told today they are being laid off. Minister, if it's all hands on deck, if this is truly a case of making sure that this is contained, does it make any sense that hospital workers who are on the front line are being told they are now going to take layoffs?

Hon Mr Clement: Forgive me if I don't take your word on it, but I will look into the matter, of course. The short answer to your question is, of course not. We want our health care system to function properly. We want it to function with the most available personnel. So assuming there is a scintilla or a granule of truth in what you said, I'll certainly look into it.

Mr Hampton: I'll make it easy for you. The head of the hospital is Dr Reuben Devlin, who is the president of the Ontario Conservative Party. What is even more alarming is that --

Interjection: No, he's not.

Mr Hampton: Well, the former president, then.

What is even more alarming is that the very hospital workers who are being laid off in this situation constitute 50% of the outpatient care at Humber River. These are the very people who conduct the screening at the hospital. They are the very people who, when someone comes into the hospital, take the temperature. They do the SARS screening.

Minister, you didn't listen to those nurses, or you didn't listen very quickly to those nurses, who on May 20 said they suspected new SARS cases. Why are you now laying off the very hospital workers at Humber River who just this morning would have been conducting the SARS screening at that hospital when people came into work?

Hon Mr Clement: I take exception to your accusation that we did not act quickly. That is false. That is without merit. It is, quite frankly, beneath you, sir, to make that accusation. And don't make faces at me, because this is a serious chamber. If the honourable member has some evidence or information that is real, I suggest he share it with me. I'd be happy to look into it. And if the honourable member has any information about Humber River Regional that I should know about, certainly I will look into that, but forgive me, given the nature of your question and the nature of your torquing of the question, if I don't take your word for it.

PUBLIC HEALTH [SARS]

Mr Dalton McGuinty (Leader of the Opposition): My question is to the Minister of Health. Minister, it was just about a month ago that the Premier announced "next steps," as he called them. I'm looking at your news release here on the SARS recovery strategy. Included among the specific commitments, it says here, "The province will assist municipalities to cover SARS-related staffing.... A priority is to reinforce the public health care system to continue the battle against SARS. The government will immediately expand staffing in public health."

That was back on April 29, nearly a month ago. Can you tell us how much money has now flowed to public health units across the province, but especially here in Toronto, which is struggling with the throes of another outbreak of SARS?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I can tell you that I had a conversation with Mayor Lastman about this just late last week, and indicated to him that we were very mindful of the Premier's commitment, which was a commitment as a leader in the fight against SARS -- which the Premier is, incidentally.

The fact of the matter is that that is still our commitment as a government. It still is, in fact, our intention, and there will be more details in the very near future. The fact of the matter is, as well, that we have an outstanding commitment from the federal Liberal government with respect to the same issue, and I would encourage the member -- I've sent several letters to the Minister of Health Canada; my colleague the Honourable David Young has sent several letters to the Honourable Minister McCallum. If he wants to add his name to those letters, perhaps we can get them to move, because they haven't moved to date.

Mr McGuinty: Can you ever deal with a health care issue, especially a health care emergency, and not point the finger of blame at the federal government? Can you ever provide real leadership? I want to remind you, this is your government's press release that was put out on April 29. You said you were going to "assist municipalities to cover SARS-related staffing." You said a priority is to reinforce the public health care system to continue the battle against SARS: "The government will immediately expand staffing in public health." Well, today we spoke to Joe Mihevc. You will know that he's the chair of the Toronto Board of Health. They say that you haven't sent a single penny to cover the costs of SARS, not since this announcement was made just over a month ago. You have broken your promise. I ask you again, why is it that you are great when it comes to putting out press releases, but you have yet to move forward and make sure that you actually send money to those people who need it to cope with SARS?

Hon Mr Clement: I'm sorry the honourable member feels that way. I think he might not feel that way at the end of the day. I can definitely assure you that I had a very fruitful conversation with the mayor of the city of Toronto, who did understand that our commitment was still a commitment that we are going to keep. He was much more concerned about the lack of follow-through by the federal government of their commitments, their lack of understanding about Toronto and their lack of concern about Ontario and Toronto issues. That is the more important issue. If you want to be of help to the people of Ontario, you will help us to make sure that Jean Chrétien keeps his word.

SARS

Mr R. Gary Stewart (Peterborough): I can't understand that group there. This happens to be a fairly important question that I appreciate the opposition doesn't want to listen to. It's to the Minister of Health.

I understand that the leader of the third party asked a question regarding layoffs of front-line health care workers at Humber River Regional Hospital. Can you give us an update on what you understand the situation to be?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I thank the honourable member for the question. There were some details of which perhaps the leader of the third party was unaware. In fact, there are fewer than 10 health care workers affected by a recent decision to lower the number of people working in the chiropody foot care unit of the hospital. I can inform this House that they never did any SARS work whatsoever in the foot care unit, nor will it affect the hospital's SARS screening. So it looks like the honourable leader of the third party has managed to combine feet and his mouth in his question.

Mr Stewart: It kind of amazes me that every time we talk about health care issues, the opposition starts to heckle. I guess they don't have much faith in or don't really want to know much about health care in this province.

Minister, would you please update us on any new initiatives or programs that have been put in place in the last few days to address the SARS crisis?

Hon Mr Clement: In all seriousness, there was an important announcement made yesterday about an interim alliance among four Toronto-area hospitals -- the William Osler Health Centre, Etobicoke campus; the General site of the Scarborough Hospital; the North York General Hospital; and St Mike's Hospital as a tertiary unit -- all working together to have a comprehensive, integrated and coordinated approach when it comes to administering care to any SARS patients.

This is unprecedented in the hospital system. It came about as a result of the voluntary efforts of the hospitals in question. We believe that, having learned something from the first go-round with SARS, this will better assist us in dealing with SARS patients and making sure they get better quicker, and at the same time ensure that the other 99% of health care that occurs in our hospital system is done efficiently and safely for patients and health care workers combined.

This is an important step in our ongoing battle against SARS. It does not mean that we can let down our guard, but it's a step --

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): The minister's time is up.
 
 

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

HEALTH INSURANCE AMENDMENT ACT, 2003

Mr Duncan moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 64, An Act to amend the Health Insurance Act to satisfy the criteria for contribution by the Government of Canada set out in the Canada Health Act / Projet de loi 64, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l'assurance-santé pour satisfaire aux critères régissant les contributions du gouvernement du Canada et énoncés dans la Loi canadienne sur la santé.

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

The member for a short statement.

Mr Dwight Duncan (Windsor-St Clair): This bill incorporates the principles of the Canada Health Act into Ontario statute with respect to health. In effect, it prevents any government from creating a two-tier health care system in Ontario. This government had a chance to vote against it once before. It's now part of our platform, and people will choose change.

ORAL QUESTIONS

SARS

Ms Sandra Pupatello (Windsor West): My question is for the Minister of Health, and involves a very serious issue.

Dr Donald Low said yesterday that your government closed the book on SARS prematurely. He said you didn't do all you could have to ensure we had actually beaten SARS. You didn't require hospital staff to continue wearing protective masks or hospitals to screen new patients and visitors for SARS symptoms. In short, the "new normal" became the old status quo. You became complacent, and now SARS is back.

It's clear that there are still many lessons to be learned here. Will you now agree to a full public inquiry so we can find out what went wrong and prevent another outbreak in the future?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): Much as I hate to disagree with the honourable member, she's got her quotations completely incorrect when it comes to what Don Low said. If anything, he was referring to the medical community, and not to this government or any particular individual.

Mr John Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands): It's not their fault.

Hon Mr Clement: Excuse me. This is not about finding fault; it's about correcting the record. Let's be accurate before we start hurling accusations back and forth about a public health issue.

I can tell you this: on May 2, the emergency committee sent a protocol to all hospitals respecting mask fitting, in which we indicated we had new forms of masks that were available and should be used; on May 6, we sent another letter to hospitals to ensure compliance; on May 12, we dealt with patient transfer procedures, making sure that procedures relating to transfers were adhered to. So I can tell you that right around the time of the flare-up -- unbeknownst to us, of course -- we were dealing with the protection of health care workers and the protection of patients. I, for one, was saying, "We cannot be letting our guard down," and unfortunately for all of us, that proved to be all too prescient.

Ms Pupatello: Ontarians need to trust the government and our health care system right now. With all the government policies in the last eight years, it's difficult to do that.

Here's why: funding to hospitals has been cut; you fired thousands of nurses and only offered part-time or casual jobs; you downloaded public health, and public health funding has decreased; you fired our public health scientists. Our health system has no surge capacity. That has been acknowledged publicly by people in the public health system. There's no surge capacity to deal with SARS because you've cut it to the bone. When it comes to SARS, both Dr Low and Dr Schabas say that after the World Health Organization lifted the travel advisory, you let the guard down.

Minister, it's time for you to agree to a public inquiry so we can get to the bottom of this to find out what really went wrong. Our problem with your review of this is that you will not look at Conservative government policies that affected the health system to make it more difficult to cope with a SARS outbreak. Will you have a public inquiry now?

Hon Mr Clement: As the honourable member knows, we have an independent panel, an expert panel, that is looking into all of the issues. But the honourable member is sewing a web into her allegations, which is not becoming to the honourable member. Indeed, the person she refers to in her statement was quoted as saying on May 27 that he didn't think there should be blame placed and didn't believe anyone let their guard down, the same Dr Richard Schabas who said that we were overcompensating at the beginning of this medical emergency.

We are quite willing to take some recommendations from Dr Schabas, just as we're quite willing to take recommendations from anyone who wishes to suggest them, but I would prefer to rely upon independent health officials like the World Health Organization, who said that Toronto has excellent experience in dealing with this outbreak, that they're well along in containing it, that it seems to be a setback. But they are quite appreciative of our efforts to get the information out and to deal with the issue. That's what the World Health Organization has said.

Ms Pupatello: Concerns have been raised about your ministry's failure to provide health care workers with the early signs they needed to fight SARS. Your failure to properly fund hospitals forced one of the first SARS patients to lie on a stretcher in the ER for up to 12 hours, coming into contact with potentially hundreds of people instead of a few had he been moved into a room. Your refusal to hire full-time nurses meant that some of our health care workers unknowingly risked transmitting this disease as they travelled from job to job because we have not provided them with full-time work. There are serious questions about how the government's policies actually contributed to the spread of this outbreak.

I believe that your review will not do a review of how Conservative government policies contributed to this, and that's why we are asking so clearly for a public inquiry, so that you too and your policies will be called to the table for a review. I am asking you again: given that your new normal is looking a lot like the old status quo -- people are still waiting in the ER for hours, nurses are still working part-time and casual instead of full-time in this province, our public health units are still not funded properly -- will you --

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): I'm afraid the member's time is up. Minister of Health?

Hon Mr Clement: I must say I'm quite shocked by the honourable member's take on this issue. I wish to say directly to any health care workers or public health officials who are watching that we have confidence in them. We know they are trying to do the right thing for the people of Ontario. We know that Dr Young and Dr D'Cunha are trying to do the right thing.

I ask the honourable member -- there's lots of time for campaigning; there's lots of time for electioneering; there are lots of issues that the people of Ontario will have their say on -- please, let's work together. Let's work together and defeat SARS and make sure some very sick people get healthy again. That's what I'm concentrating on.

CHILDREN'S HEALTH SERVICES

Mr Richard Patten (Ottawa Centre): My question is to the Minister of Health. An article in the Ottawa Citizen today reports on a study published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, which looked at survival rates of patients who were undergoing complex surgical procedures in both large regional hospitals and local hospitals. The study concludes that it is erroneous to assume that placing some complex procedures in larger hospitals reduces deaths. This article made the link between these findings and your government's decision to consolidate all pediatric cardiac surgery in Toronto.

As you will know, maintaining pediatric cardiac surgery at CHEO in Ottawa remains a major issue and concern for the people of eastern Ontario. They want to know that program will be staying in the city.

Minister, your government placed full-page partisan ads in three Ottawa daily newspapers on May 17 regarding your government's commitment to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. The information contained in the ads was nothing new. All the information was released on April 28. Why shouldn't your party be paying for these kinds of partisan ads that are totally redundant to the news release and the media coverage?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I'm not well versed in all the ins and outs of Management Board guidelines on advertising, so I'll actually answer --

Mr James J. Bradley (St Catharines): Well, I've got the guidelines, and they violate them.

Hon Mr Clement: I guess the issue is closed then. The honourable member for St Catharines has already revealed his judgment on the issue. Thank you.

I do want to talk about actual issue that underlies this, if I might, to the honourable member. I think the critical phrase he used -- and I agree with the phrase -- is it would be "erroneous to assume." I agree with the honourable member that one should not assume anything when it comes to what procedures should be done where in the hospital system; one should base it on evidence. I would be pleased to run through the type of research that has been done in the answer to a supplementary.

Mr Patten: Minister, you didn't really answer the question about your party paying for those ads.

The basis of the evidence was a completely Toronto-centred model of moving everything to one centre. It was a managerial problem. It was not based on medical evidence of quality at all, and you know damned well that that's the case.

Before the last election in 1999, the previous Minister of Health promised the people from London that their children's hospital would not lose its specialty services. What happened? Two years later they lost them to Toronto. Why should the people in Ottawa or eastern Ontario believe now, just prior to an election, that you're not just going to snow them and say, "We're going to review this."

I know you know it's a big issue in Ottawa. Let me tell you it will be an election issue in Ottawa, because the people there know that service should stay there. Will you make a commitment today to keep that service in Ottawa and not try to find a face-saving device and say, "We'll do a review," and then after the election bring the service to Toronto?

Hon Mr Clement: I guess I'll continue with the thread of my answer and indicate to this House the research that has been done on these very important issues on how best to ensure that pediatric cardiac surgeries done in Ontario are done the right way: In March 1997, the HSRC provincial pediatric task force reported; in November 2001, the Specialized Pediatric Service Review Committee; in May 2002, Dr Wilbert Keon's independent review of the work of SPSRC; then there was the Manitoba Sinclair report; CIHI's report, "Health Care in Canada 2001"; Dr Hannan's "Pediatric Cardiac Surgery: The Affect of Hospital and Surgeon Volume on In-Hospital Mortality"; and Dr Williams also published a report. Dr Jenkins published a report on in-hospital mortality as well.

As you can see, we've done a lot of research. That research should be put into the mix as well as the research we're doing right now.

PATIENT TRANSFERS

Mr Cameron Jackson (Burlington): My question is for the minister responsible for long-term care. On April 4 this year, 87 frail, elderly seniors were abruptly taken from their residence at the Oakville Lifecare Centre in one of the winter's most severe storms. Residents and family members were justifiably angry, frustrated and confused at the government's decision.

In a letter dated April 2, your ministry indicated, "This was done in order to provide a centralized location where potential SARS contacts can be isolated and observed if required." Less than 48 hours later, another letter was sent, on April 4, contradicting that, saying that it was not due to SARS. In fact, it was done in order to make room for ALC -- alternate level care -- patients who were resident in this facility, to make room for other nursing-home-bound residents. Two residents died during this transfer.

I have asked the minister in a letter if he can explain, once his officials determined the facility was no longer needed for the SARS outbreak, why he put the residents at risk by directing an unnecessary transfer of these frail, elderly seniors.

Hon Dan Newman (Associate Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I want to thank the member for Burlington for his question. The transfer of patients from Oakville Lifecare back in April was part of our government's initial response to SARS. Facilities like Oakville Lifecare helped patients who no longer required the care of a hospital and who had not been exposed to SARS to move to a more appropriate health care setting. This was done so that hospitals in the greater Toronto area could deal with the increased stress on the system due to SARS. Alternative level of care or ALC patients from GTA hospitals were transferred to Oakville Lifecare as part of this strategy. To date, 67 ALC patients have been transferred to Oakville Lifecare.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the residents and their families for their understanding and for their assistance in helping Toronto deal with the original SARS crisis. I would also like to commend the staff at Oakville Lifecare who have shown tremendous professionalism and tremendous compassion during this time.

Mr Jackson: All of this doesn't explain why officials mass-moved 87 people in one of the worst storms of the year. Of the families I've talked to, in many cases they were given less than half a day's notice that their parents were being removed from this location. What concerns me is that 33 residents of Oakville, in the Speaker's riding, were transferred to the Brantwood centre in Burlington where there were 33, obviously, empty beds. The Oakville Lifecare Centre was so quickly vacated it sat vacant for an entire week. Yet, a week later, the government then made a decision to take 33 people out of the Burlington hospital and send them to Oakville. This was a completely unnecessary step, I submit to the minister.

My question then is, what steps has this minister taken to ensure that this kind of unnecessary transfer, that put frail, elderly senior citizens at risk, will never happen again in this province, as we wait for the coroner's inquest?

Hon Mr Newman: I want to say today that residents were transferred out of Oakville Lifecare as part of our government's response to SARS. As I mentioned, 67 ALC patients have been transferred to Oakville Lifecare to help relieve pressures on GTA hospitals dealing with the initial SARS outbreak.

Of course, our first priority is always the residents, and we appreciate their understanding and their co-operation throughout this time. All of the residents in Oakville Lifecare were immediately given priority placement in a facility of their choosing, and many of the residents have been placed in a nursing home of their choice. The ministry will continue to work with the residents and continue to work with their families until each and every resident is in their preferred long-term-care facility.

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has also met regularly with the residents and their families to discuss their questions and to address their concerns face to face. As well, ministry staff have personally addressed questions and concerns regarding this transfer.

PETITIONS

HEALTH CARE FUNDING

Mr James J. Bradley (St Catharines): I have a petition that reads as follows:

"To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

"Whereas long-term-care facilities in this province are understaffed, underfunded and ignored by the current government;

"Whereas many residents of St Catharines and of other communities in Ontario are unable to find a family doctor as a result of the growing doctor shortage we have experienced during the tenure of the Harris-Eves government;

"Whereas cancer patients in Ontario requiring radiation treatment face unacceptable delays and are often forced to travel to other jurisdictions to receive medical attention;

"Whereas many prescription drugs which would help patients with a variety of medical conditions such as macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, diabetes and heart failure are inadequately covered by OHIP;

"Whereas long waiting lists for diagnostic tests such as MRIs, CT scans and ultrasounds are jeopardizing the health of many individuals already facing serious illness;

"Whereas the Harris-Eves government has now spent $401 million on blatantly partisan government advertising in the form of glossy brochures, television and radio ads and full-page newspaper ads;

"We, the undersigned, call upon the Conservative government of Ernie Eves to immediately end their abuse of public office and terminate any further expenditure on political advertising and to invest this money into health and long-term care in the province of Ontario."

I affix my signature because I'm in complete agreement with the contents of this petition. I hand it to Kristian, who is a page just beginning this week at Queen's Park.
 
 

MEMBERS' STATEMENTS

PHARMACISTS

Mr Cameron Jackson (Burlington): Ontario pharmacists are highly educated health professionals. They are the drug experts. However, pharmacists are not recognized and utilized to their fullest capabilities.

The Ontario drug benefits program is the fastest-growing expense in the health care budget, increasing an alarming 11% last year. Pharmacists have the unique ability to help manage rising drug costs by making sure patients are on appropriate drugs and using them accurately. After all, the number one reason for seniors to be admitted to hospital in this province is because of an adverse reaction to a doctor-prescribed drug.

Health experts like Romanow and Kirby have recognized the need to invest in pharmacists as a tool to improve health care. Other provinces recognize that pharmacists provide cognitive services, but unfortunately Ontario pharmacists are still waiting. Our government has excluded the Ontario Pharmacists' Association from its review of drug utilization. For the past several years, drug manufacturers have been raising their prices beyond what is legislatively permitted. Therefore, pharmacists have seen their cost recovery erode, leaving them less time to spend with their patients. Pharmacists have not seen a fee increase in this province for 13 years, and currently they are paid $6.47 to dispense drugs in the ODB. Yet a study shows that their real costs are $10.68.

Quality health care depends on acknowledging the work of these vital health care professionals, and begins with treating pharmacists with respect.
 

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

TOMMY DOUGLAS ACT (PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS), 2003

Ms Martel moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 56, An Act to promote patients' rights and to increase accountability in Ontario's health care system / Projet de loi 56, Loi visant à promouvoir les droits des patients et à accroître l'obligation de rendre des comptes dans le système de soins de santé de l'Ontario.

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

The member for a short statement?

Ms Shelley Martel (Nickel Belt): The bill codifies the rights of residents of Ontario to receive health care services in the form of a patients' bill of rights. The bill provides for the appointment of a health care standards commissioner, an officer of the Legislature, who will perform functions such as participating in the setting of health care standards and the development of complaints procedures, monitoring health care standards and making recommendations to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and to the Legislature.

The bill establishes whistle-blower protection for the employees of providers of health care services, and the bill requires conspicuous posting of copies of the patients' bill of rights and the whistle-blower protection provisions.

ORAL QUESTIONS

SARS

Ms Sandra Pupatello (Windsor West): My question is for the Minister of Health. Minister, it has been more than two months since SARS hit Ontario. In that time, it wasn't until hundreds of part-time nurses could not safely report to work because of the outbreak that you finally realized we had a problem with nurses working part-time and not enough nurses working full-time. You said that one of the things we need to do in the "new normal" of health care is to have more full-time nurses. Everyone recalls the statement: "I'm surprised by how many part-time nurses we have."

Minister, can you tell us -- this House, the people of Ontario and specifically the nurses -- what you have done in this last month to ensure that we have more full time-nurses working in Ontario today?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I hope the honourable member is not suggesting that we have nothing to learn from infection control procedures and the impact of those on the health care system. If the honourable member has all of the answers, perhaps she would like to share some of them with the rest of the House.

In the meantime, we feel that we do have things to learn and we feel that it is important to listen to our excellent nurses in the field, our wonderful physicians, our epidemiologists, our public health officials. We are doing so through the expert panel which was announced, I believe, about 10 days ago, because that will be an important means by which we understand exactly what went right and what can be improved upon as a result of the SARS outbreak.

From my perspective, this is an ongoing process. There are things we can learn and there are things we can do.

Ms Pupatello: What we need is not just talk but action.

What you said after SARS hit Ontario was that you were surprised at how many nurses are working part-time. You said you didn't realize how many were working part-time. What we realize, because of the outbreak and our ability to respond to it, is that we have to have more full-time nurses, which nurses have been telling you for eight years. After eight years of watching $400 million being spent to fire nurses; watching them travel to the United States to work, especially in border communities; watching nurses work two and three part-time jobs just to make a living, we realize we have a problem.

Our greatest fear today is that we are going to become complacent, that we will just have words and no action. Unfortunately, the new normal is becoming the status quo, so don't suggest today that you are going to wait for some long review before we actually get moving on hiring full-time nurses.

Minister, we need an answer. In this last month, what have you specifically done to make sure we are hiring full-time nurses, not part-time?

Hon Mr Clement: The honourable member might be aware that in the last month we have had a debate about the budget in this Legislature, a budget which continues our previous commitments for new nurses in the province of Ontario. To date, we've invested $800 million of public money for new nursing positions. We expect to graduate over 8,000 nurses in the province over the next three years. We will create 750 new nurse practitioner positions by 2005, and 117 of those will begin practising this spring. We are the first province to create a chief nursing officer and the nursing secretariat. The honourable member was around when I announced to the RNAO and the RPNAO that we have a new-hire in that position, which was taken very, very positively by the nursing profession. If the honourable member wants action, on this side of House we have excelled in action.

Ms Pupatello: Minister, here is the problem with your words. You've been saying the same thing for eight years, and what we have today, because of all the talk over the last eight years, is too many part-time nurses and not enough full-time nurses. Every time you attend a nurses' function, they tell you the same thing: we have too many part-time and not enough full-time. SARS gave us the reality check. In the new normal that is now, we understand, becoming the status quo, part-time nurses just can't take care of these issues as well. We need to move them to full-time.

We have a plan to hire 8,000 nurses, and we are telling the people how we are paying for that. You have yet to do it. You have made the same announcements for the last eight years, and today in Ontario we have part-time nursing. Even the nurses told you they needed full-time nurses. After eight years of telling you, you said, "I'm surprised how many part-time nurses we have."

Minister, we don't want talk. We want action. It's going to take a Dalton McGuinty government, an Ontario Liberal government, to bring full-time nurses to Ontario.

Hon Mr Clement: There are so many ways that I could reply to that. It's clear that a Dalton McGuinty government would raise taxes by $5 billion. It's clear that a Dalton McGuinty government would refuse to allow new public-private partnership hospitals to be built, which would increase accessibility and allow us to hire more nurses in those institutions. It's quite apparent that Dalton McGuinty doesn't want more access to diagnostic services. All of that is clear.

All I can tell the honourable member is that in the last five to seven years we have acted. That is why there are more than 12,000 new nursing positions in the province of Ontario, funded directly by the province to ensure that our nursing profession gets the support it needs from the government. We are proud of that record.

So our talk is more than talk. It's actually action, and it's action we're most proud of.

HEALTH CARE FUNDING

Mr Howard Hampton (Kenora-Rainy River): My question is for the Premier. This morning, people who were trying to find out how serious the latest SARS outbreak is couldn't get answers because the public health units involved didn't have enough people to answer the phones. The reason they don't have enough people to answer the phones is because -- here's their dilemma: Do they fight SARS? Do they fight West Nile? Do they look after tuberculosis? Do they do food inspections? That's the situation they're in. In fact, health units are being forced to cannibalize one program today to fight another crisis out there that they weren't ready for. Dr Sheela Basrur has put it this way: "We would try to beg, borrow and steal staff from other health units. It's like ripping the bandage off one wound to stop the bleeding of another."

Premier, is this what you call properly protecting the public health of the citizens of Ontario?

Hon Ernie Eves (Premier, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs): The Minister of Health will respond very directly to the concern.

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): I can certainly assure the honourable member that, as the Premier said over the weekend, we are here as a government to help our public health officials, to help our doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to ensure that we fight the latest flare-up and that we get to a better place as soon as possible.

I can tell the honourable member that it was an Ernie Eves government that announced we were going to have SWAT teams of dedicated public health officials available in any situation where, if there was a surge of phone calls or a surge of investigations that have to take place in a short period of time, they have the necessary resources. This is a commitment that the Ontario government has fulfilled, and we will continue to do so.

Mr Hampton: Oh, please. You make another announcement. The reality is they didn't have enough staff to answer the phones. The reality is that when you talk to public health units out there, they will tell you that you haven't yet covered the money they spent to fight SARS in the initial outbreak. They have no idea if they're going to get it. You made an announcement about West Nile; you tried to pretend that you were going to cover 100% of the costs of fighting West Nile. You read the fine print: yes, you covered the cost of the larvicide, but the municipalities and the health units have to go out there and cover the cost for the staff to apply it. They have to do all the expensive stuff. That's what you're forcing them to do. You're forcing them, day in and day out, to take staff from SARS to fight West Nile, to take staff from West Nile to fight SARS, to ignore things like food inspection or tuberculosis.

I ask you again, is that your definition of properly protecting the public health of the people of Ontario?

Hon Mr Clement: Mr Speaker, please allow me the opportunity to correct the record on several fronts here. First of all, it's our government that made a comprehensive, unprecedented commitment of $33 million this year to fight the West Nile virus, 100% of the costs of covering the larviciding. So we are living up to the commitment for the public health of Ontario.

I've been very clear: we have had an unprecedented situation. The Premier has made it crystal clear that our government stands side by side with public health officials, side by side with hospitals and other aspects of the health care system, with our health care workers, to ensure that the resources are there, that our funding is there and, of course, our expertise, as you know we have because we have some of the best experts in the world. That is the commitment of the Premier, that is the commitment of this government and we are following through.

Mr Hampton: Minister, here's the record with respect to SARS: health units out there that have literally stretched themselves to the point of exhaustion still don't know if they're going to get the money from you to cover that incredible expenditure. Here's your record on West Nile: last year, 17 people died and over 1,000 people became very sick. Why? First of all, you cancelled the lab that would have helped to diagnose the problem with West Nile; you laid off the scientists; the labs you had available became backlogged; and then you didn't get the samples to Winnipeg until January, February or March. That is your record. So I ask you again, Minister: when health units are overstretched, when they don't even have enough people to answer the phone, is this your idea of properly protecting the public health of the people of Ontario?

Hon Mr Clement: The commitment of this government has been unprecedented. Last year, we were there in terms of the funding formula for the West Nile virus. This year we've topped it up. We've made an absolute commitment for a made-in-Ontario solution to get the laboratory testing up to our standards so we don't have to rely on Winnipeg when nine other provinces do.

Certainly our commitment is there. If the honourable member would take time to understand the dollars and cents and the commitment we've made historically, the fact is that this has been an unprecedented year, but our support has been unprecedented as well. I don't know how more crystal clear the Premier of Ontario could be but to say we are going to be there. We're going to be there financially, we're going to be there morally, we're going to be there in terms of our resources, we're going to be there in terms of our expertise. We have made that commitment. The Premier has been crystal clear and we are proud of him.

SARS

Mr R. Gary Stewart (Peterborough): My question is for the Minister of Tourism, the Honourable Brian Coburn, MPP for Ottawa-Orléans. Last week you took part in Molson Canada's $100,000 Happy Hour, intended to assist hospitality workers who have suffered financial loss as a result of SARS. It was a series of events held in Toronto in an attempt to revitalize the city and get people out in the wake of recent challenges we have all faced. Minister, can you tell me what our government is doing to aid businesses and the people of Toronto post SARS?

Hon Brian Coburn (Minister of Tourism and Recreation): I thank the hard-working member for Peterborough. I had, along with my parliamentary assistant, Wayne Wettlaufer, who is --

Hon John R. Baird (Minister of Energy, Minister responsible for francophone affairs): He's a good man.

Hon Mr Coburn: Yes, he is a hard-working member as well.

We've been very active on this issue right from the outset. We're meeting with our tourism partners and stakeholders right across the industry and hearing their advice and getting suggestions from them on how to combat this issue from a tourism perspective.

I co-hosted a federal-provincial meeting a little over a week ago here in Toronto where I met with my federal and provincial colleagues to discuss some of the challenges we're facing right across the country as a result of SARS and how we can work together to combat these challenges.

As well, we were happy to see Premier Eves announce the $128-million aid initiative which passed through this Legislature unanimously a few weeks ago. This package is aimed at rehabilitating Toronto and Ontario and our image in the eyes of the world. Furthermore, Minister Flaherty and I will be going out and meeting some of our counterparts in the nearby states to share the message to come to Toronto, that --

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): I'm afraid the minister's time is up.

Mr Stewart: I'm pleased to hear how quickly our government responded to the needs of the city, as well as the rest of Ontario. I'm very interested, as well, in the rest of Ontario.

It's also great to see how so many people are rallying around Toronto to give a hand and get this great city back on its feet, whether that be the partners at Molson, the Mirvish family or the Blue Jays. I know we can all get through this if we continue to work together.

Minister, can you tell me more specifically how Premier Eves's $128-million announcement will be spent to assist Ontarians?

Hon Mr Coburn: Again, I thank the member for the question. The $128-million announcement is part of a two-year recovery plan to rebuild global confidence in Toronto and Ontario as world-class travel destinations. Some $66.8 million will be identified and used in a multimedia approach to reassure residents and potential visitors to both Toronto and Ontario that they are safe travel destinations and to convince travellers to come and experience Ontario this summer.

A long-term recovery campaign targeting Ontario residents, US border states and overseas markets will also be undertaken to rebuild Toronto as the primary destination of choice for events, conventions and leisure travel. An intensive public relations campaign, including the mounting of several major events in the greater Toronto area to gain an international profile and special marketing support for events such as the Molson Indy, which we announced this morning, Caribana, the Toronto International Film Festival and events right across the province, will be part of that intensive marketing campaign for the summer season.

PETITIONS

HEALTH CARE FUNDING

Mr James J. Bradley (St Catharines): This petition is to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

"Whereas long-term-care facilities in this province are understaffed, underfunded and ignored by the current government;

"Whereas many residents of St Catharines and of other communities in Ontario are unable to find a family doctor as a result of the growing doctor shortage we have experienced during the tenure of the Harris-Eves government;

"Whereas cancer patients in Ontario requiring radiation treatment face unacceptable delays and are often forced to travel to other jurisdictions to receive medical attention;

"Whereas many prescription drugs which would help patients with a variety of medical conditions such as macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, diabetes and heart failure are inadequately covered by OHIP;

"Whereas long waiting lists for diagnostic tests such as MRIs, CT scans and ultrasounds are jeopardizing the health of many individuals already facing serious illness;

"Whereas the Harris-Eves government has now spent well over $250 million on blatantly partisan government advertising in the form of glossy brochures and television and radio ads;

"We, the undersigned, call upon the Conservative government of Ernie Eves to immediately end their abuse of public office and terminate any further expenditure on political advertising and to invest this money into health and long-term care in the province."

I affix my signature. I'm in complete agreement, as I suspect you are.

MEDICAL REVIEW COMMITTEE

Mr Peter Kormos (Niagara Centre): Joanne Duchesne and Linda Pilkington have provided me with petitions addressed to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

"Whereas the OHIP schedule of benefits is often unclear about its definitions of good medical practice, causing problems for patients and their physicians;

"The medical review committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons has been aggressively clawing back payments to hard-working, conscientious doctors and thereby exacerbating physician shortages in the province;

"We, the undersigned, request the Minister of Health to suspend further reviews by the medical review committee pending a negotiated agreement of an unambiguous schedule of benefits with representatives of affected practising physicians."

That's signed by Lorraine Brown of Welland, Phyllis Repar of Fonthill and hundreds, indeed thousands, of others.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

2003 ONTARIO BUDGET [Excerpts]

Resuming the debate adjourned on May 22, 2003, on the motion that this House approves in general the budgetary policy of the government.

Ms Caroline Di Cocco (Sarnia-Lambton): [...] What I would like to say about trust is that we have gotten a tremendous amount of support because our fiscal accounting is about good management. The province has been mismanaged because there is a one-sided approach. The one-sided approach is that we have not invested appropriately in our health care. We don't have enough full-time nurses, for instance. So how does that help our system? It doesn't, because in the end we don't have the capacity to deal with emergencies, not to the extent that we would have had with a good base. I know what the nurses on the front lines are saying, and I don't think we can reiterate it in this House.

It's very important that the government understands it has a responsibility to be accurate, a responsibility to not say one thing and do another. That has been consistent with this government: they do not manage the affairs of this province prudently. We saw how they managed the whole notion of our environment, and Walkerton was a result. They fired five scientists in this province in 2001, one of whom was working on the test for West Nile virus. They fired him. Why? Because they said, "We don't want to spend money on someone standing around waiting for bugs to show up." It's a nearsighted approach to governing.

[...]

Mr Raminder Gill (Bramalea-Gore-Malton-Springdale):  [...]
 

Mr Gill:   [...] The Ontario government believes strongly in making sure seniors have the best possible quality of life in safe and healthy communities. Our commitment to supporting seniors involves many ministries throughout the government. Through the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, our government has increased health care spending from $17.6 billion in 1995 to invest $27.6 billion this year.

I must point out that one of the largest hospitals in Canada, which is the largest community-based hospital, is going to be built in my great riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton-Springdale. It is going to be 608 beds with all the specialities in that hospital. After 30 years in the making, we're looking forward to having a new hospital, and I know the sod-turning is going to be done fairly soon.

This is an increase of $10 billion in the health care system itself since we came to office. In 1998, our government committed to increasing its annual spending on long-term care by $1.2 billion from 1998-99 to 2005-06. This investment plan includes approximately $700 million to fund the construction and operating costs of 20,000 new long-term-care beds, the first new beds in over a decade.

The other day I was in committee, as I am several times, and I did not think I would hear what I heard from the third party, the NDP. They said we have too many long-term-care beds now. That's amazing. We had a great shortage; now they're saying too many. I don't think we can tune it to the finite numbers, saying, well, now we're matching the long-term care to the long-term needs, but I can assure you that great progress is being made. I was quite amazed and quite happy to hear the NDP say that we have too many long-term-care beds.

It also includes a $55-million increase in annual spending on vital long-term-care community services such as visiting nurses and homemakers, Meals on Wheels and transportation services. Funding new long-term-care beds is only part of our plan to provide residents in all long-term-care facilities with additional nursing and personal care.

Again I'm quite pleased to say that in my great riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton-Springdale we have two long-term-care facilities being built, one in Malton and the other one in Bramalea right next to the hospital, right next to the wellness centre. I am quite pleased to be going to the opening of it fairly soon.

The Minister of Finance announced in the 2003 budget that our government will provide an additional $100 million annually specifically for nursing and personal care. This is in addition to the $100-million increase for nursing and personal care that the Honourable Dan Newman announced last August.

Some examples of our recent investment in long-term-care facilities include the creation of 186 new and 184 redeveloped long-term-care beds at the F.J. Davey facility in Sault Ste Marie -- I'm sure the member for Sault Ste Marie will be quite pleased and happy to hear that -- 160 new long-term-care beds in the town of Kingsville and 200 new long-term-care beds at the Yee Hong Centre in Markham.

By the way, this Friday I'm going to be hosting a golf tournament in aid of Yee Hong long-term care. It's a charity golf tournament and I would welcome anybody who would want to come and pay some money for the good cause that this is. I'm also quite pleased that our government is helping the Yee Hong Centre in terms of 200 new long-term-care beds at their facility in Markham. I know they are building another facility in Mississauga as well -- great work being done by the volunteers of the Yee Hong committee.

Our 20,000 new long-term-care beds will be on stream by 2004, plus an additional 16,000 existing outdated beds are being renovated to bring them up to standard.

We have also made other improvements that would benefit many seniors. We have increased the number of MRIs in Ontario from 12 in 1995-96 to 42 today, and have approved another 10. We have established 16 regional and district stroke centres since 2000. We have reduced the waiting time for cardiac surgery by 50% since 1996.

We are undertaking more initiatives to prepare for our rapidly aging society, to protect the health and well-being of seniors. Seniors are the most vulnerable to many illnesses. As the population ages, eye disease, osteoporosis and dementia are common illnesses afflicting them. Our government has addressed and provided increased support to assist seniors who are affected by these diseases.

To reflect the higher cost of using our drug program, we announced that we would provide almost $200 million more in 2003-04 to cover these increases. Our government spent approximately $2.1 billion for drug programs in 2002-03, an increase of about 112%. That's a substantial increase: 112% since 1994-95. More needs to be done; I know that. I know my esteemed colleagues will agree with that. In the 2003 budget we announced that spending on the Ontario drug benefit program would increase to $2.3 billion -- again, a substantial increase of 132% since 1994-95. Also, since 1994-95 more than 1,300 products have been added to the formulary, bringing the total number of products to more than 3,200 prescription drugs available today. Ontario's drug benefit program is the most comprehensive of its kind in the whole of Canada.

[...]

Mr Richard Patten (Ottawa Centre): [...] It's quite revealing -- as a matter of fact it's indicative and telling that this budget begins to address and target seniors in a variety of fashions, because they know that many seniors are dissatisfied with this government. They know they're dissatisfied with long-term care. As a matter of fact, there was a report, yesterday or this morning, that mentioned that 88 long-term-care facilities -- homes for the aged -- were deemed to be substandard in this province because of the poor funding that was available to them.

Rather than offering $450 million to help shore up long-term care and home care -- one of the biggest complaints I get in my riding, and I suspect you get in yours, is that home care has been cut or, if it's available to you, you now have to pay for it. So for the measly little amount of money that someone is going to get back, a hundred bucks, ask them to add up what they've lost over the period. That's exactly why you're targeting them: because you know they're very dissatisfied and displeased. I don't think you're going to be able to buy off votes in this election at this particular time. I don't think seniors are that stupid and I don't think the attempt to buy their votes will win the day. Shore up their programs instead.

Mr Bisson:  [...] The other one is, if you're really saying that your government put in place a whole bunch of measures in order to help seniors, why is it that your government basically made the humungous changes that they did to the CCACs? Budgets have been flatlined, with the result that many CCACs across the province are having to reduce the amount of hours available for seniors who stay in their homes independently. In fact, we all have examples across the province, in our ridings, of seniors who have had to be institutionalized because the service that they used to get from their CCAC has been reduced to the point that they can't live independently in their homes.

So it seems to me your government should have taken a more universal approach and said, "Let's put back some of the money that we need to re-invest in CCACs to allow people to live independently in their homes." And why is it that his government only cares about people who own houses and not people who live in apartments?

Mr AL McDonald (Nipissing): It's my pleasure to stand in my place and join the debate on the budget. I just have to look at my riding and what this government has done. There's a new hospital in North Bay. There's a new hospital in Mattawa. There's a children's treatment centre. They're four-laning Highway 11 north. They've included tax incentive zones throughout the north, which is going to help all of us.

[...]

Mr Joseph Cordiano (York South-Weston): [...] When we look at this budget in its entirety, where's the real benefit to people in the province? Where's the real benefit in terms of health care? This is a government that is using health money that comes from Ottawa to balance last year's budget to the tune of $967 million. It's going to count on $771 million next year from the federal government as well. Again, that's based on a very rosy outlook in terms of the economy performing, probably a flawed strategy. I hope the economy keeps chugging along, but frankly it may not. Nonetheless, this government will bank on that money before it even has it.

There are gaping problems in our health care system, and we see it. In my riding alone, the matter with regard to renovations and updating the local hospital, Humber River Regional Hospital, still hasn't been resolved. I say to the government, you closed one of the acute care facilities, Northwestern General Hospital, and that is still a problem in my riding. We experienced the greatest number of ambulatory redirects and critical care bypasses, more than any other hospital in the GTA. That's just an unacceptable situation. It is incumbent upon the government to recognize when there are real needs, pressing needs, acute care facilities that are left dangling in a community that is left without the very services it needs to depend on.

[...]

Mr Peter Kormos (Niagara Centre):  [...] One of the things of great concern that was expressed was this budget's failure to address the acute needs of so many communities, indeed every community, and so many families and individuals within those communities with respect to adequate funding for mental health services. Down in Niagara region, we've been robbed of the nine adolescent mental health beds that we were promised. We've seen ongoing underfunding of mental health services, most acutely in the area of youth and adolescent mental health services. It was brought to my attention so poignantly and so powerfully by families who deal with schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses, especially amongst young people the inadequacy of this government when it comes to providing resources so that we can treat persons with mental illness: the lack of hospital beds for mental health patients and, once again, especially youth and adolescents. What happens is that youth and adolescent mental health patients, especially those arriving at the hospital in crisis, end up being put into adult psychiatric units. That's dangerous. It's not supportive of proper mental health treatment. It's counterproductive. One of the many real tragedies is the lack of adequate funding for mental health services in this government's budget.

[...]

We must do everything we can. I urge the Minister of Agriculture to, if need be, go it alone, as she has said, to do everything possible to reopen the American borders and the other exporting borders as well. Every day that we wait, our farmers are losing thousands and thousands of dollars.

We need the minister to please work as well with the rendering industry to ensure that their needs are being met as we work through this most difficult situation.

Most importantly, it's not too early for the Minister of Agriculture to start putting the wheels in motion to deal with compensation measures that we know are going to have to be undertaken.

We urge all Ontarians to choose beef as their meal choice. Fire up that barbecue and have a hamburg, have a steak, or try my favourite: Ontario corn-fed beef. Please, beef -- it's what it's all about. Beef -- we need to do everything we can to support this industry. You can do that at home, ladies and gentlemen, by making sure that you go out to that grocery store and buy some Ontario beef.

CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME

Mrs Margaret Marland (Mississauga South): I rise to inform the House that last Monday, May 12, was the international day of recognition for ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. ME is a serious, debilitating, multi-system physical illness that affects individuals of all ages. Results of recent studies show that ME affects 522 women and 291 men for every 100,000 members of our population. The onset of the illness may be sudden, and while a few victims may be able to continue work or school, many are bedridden or require mobility devices.

ME has a particularly negative impact on our children and youth. As with adults, children may experience neurological or cognitive difficulties, muscle weakness, profound exhaustion and dysfunction of the immune system.

Despite ongoing worldwide research, the cause of ME remains unknown. Fortunately for sufferers of this debilitating disease, their cause is being well represented by the volunteers at the ME association of Ontario. Founded in 1990, this non-profit organization is dedicated to providing education and information to those affected by ME.

I ask all honourable members to join me in applauding the efforts of the dedicated volunteers of the MEAO as they help raise awareness of ME.

Members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario wear a blue ribbon in support those afflicted by ME and in the hope that the hard work and vigilance of volunteers and researchers will soon bring the incidence of ME to an end.

HOSPITAL SERVICES [Sarnia-Lambton- hospital amalgation]

Ms Caroline Di Cocco (Sarnia-Lambton): My community of Sarnia-Lambton dutifully followed the provincial government's directive and amalgamated our hospitals. What we have now, seven years later, is an inadequate facility containing insufficient beds and a depleted and demoralized workforce. We do not have enough beds to meet the needs of our community, and we do not have enough nurses and health care professionals to manage the patients.

Not only is this hurting my community's ability to attract new doctors, but our best and our most experienced health care workers are leaving these inadequate facilities to work in the United States or pursue other careers.

Dr Withers is a family physician in Sarnia. He points out that the current ER was meant only as a temporary structure and that now it is treating double the patients it was designed to treat. Concerns over the working conditions, insufficient staffing and lack of available beds have driven away experienced emergency doctors and nurses to seek work elsewhere.

If workplace conditions and deficient infrastructures are not addressed, the Minister of Health should understand that the reality is that we cannot resolve the systemic shortage or keep pace with the exodus of health care professionals. As the MPP for Sarnia-Lambton, I want to make sure that the minister once again understands the urgent need in Sarnia-Lambton for a new hospital.

SUDBURY REGIONAL HOSPITAL [Operational review]

Ms Shelley Martel (Nickel Belt): For months now, phase 2 construction at the Sudbury Regional Hospital has been on hold. We've had an operating review, a capital review, recommendations, a supervisor, more recommendations, but no money from this government to finish this capital project. Instead we've been told we'll have to contribute even more to cover the local share of increased construction costs; this after the community has already fundraised more than we had to, in three years instead of five. Our community has done enough. We've met our obligations and we shouldn't be forced to do more. Instead it's time the Conservatives put their money on the table to get this project done.

Our regional hospital has a responsibility to provide health care services to people right across northeastern Ontario. We can't do that, much less meet the needs of local residents, when the wing for emergency services, for example, is still a huge hole in the ground.

The government doesn't understand that ongoing construction delays also put the northern medical school at risk. The media has already reported the opening might be delayed until 2005, due to issues involving accreditation. What medical student will apply to Sudbury if the future of the teaching hospital is in limbo? Who will come to teach if it's not clear the hospital will be done on time? We can't recruit if we can't guarantee the project will be done, and done on time. The government must announce money now so that the northern medical school is not compromised in this way.

Sudbury says, "Finish our hospital." That is what the Conservative government should do right now.

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

STUDENT HEALTH AND SAFETY PROGRAMS ACT, 2003

Mr Gravelle moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 42, An Act to bring health and safety programs to Ontario students / Projet de loi 42, Loi visant à offrir des programmes de santé et de sécurité aux étudiants de l'Ontario.

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): Is it the pleasure of House that the motion carry? Carried.

The member for a short statement?

Mr Michael Gravelle (Thunder Bay-Superior North): The purpose of this legislation is to equip Ontario's students entering the workforce with the skills and knowledge they need to prevent injuries, fatalities and occupational disease in the workplace. We need this legislation because young workers are at a much higher risk of a workplace accident or disease than other workers. In fact, their chance of sustaining an injury at work is 80% higher than the average worker's. Nobody feels more strongly about this than the Thunder Bay Injured Workers' Support Group. This in fact is their legislation -- legislation, may I say, that I have introduced before. I hope we'll be successful this time in having this act pass third reading.
 

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY AMENDMENT ACT (WORKPLACE CARCINOMA COMMITTEE), 2003

Mr Bartolucci moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 44, An Act to amend the Occupational Health and Safety Act to require the appointment of a workplace carcinoma committee / Projet de loi 44, Loi modifiant la Loi sur la santé et la sécurité au travail en vue d'exiger la constitution d'un comité du carcinome d'origine professionnelle.

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

The member for a short statement?

Mr Rick Bartolucci (Sudbury): This bill amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act to require the minister to appoint a workplace carcinoma committee responsible for advising, investigating and reporting on matters concerning workplace cancers.

Hon Jim Wilson (Minister of Northern Development and Mines): Just a quick point of order because they have to leave shortly, Mr Speaker: I introduce Mayor Charlie Primeau; Roy Sinclair, the CAO; and Eric Rutherford, deputy mayor, of Greenstone, northwestern Ontario.

ORAL QUESTIONS

WATER QUALITY [Walkerton; Toronto Star article]

Ms Marilyn Churley (Toronto-Danforth): My question is for the Deputy Premier. I want to talk to you today about safe drinking water and safe food on this, the third anniversary of the Walkerton tragedy. The Toronto Star recently revealed that there were 533 bad water reports from drinking water systems throughout Ontario last year. The environment ministry reports 40% of water systems in Ontario are out of compliance. Yet you have not spent the over $200 million that you allocated for sewer and water projects -- over $200 million, Minister.

I want to ask you: on this, the third anniversary of Walkerton, why in God's name have you left so many municipalities with dangerous water systems in this province?

Hon Elizabeth Witmer (Deputy Premier, Minister of Education): I'll refer that to the Minister of the Environment.

Hon Chris Stockwell (Minister of the Environment, Government House Leader): Let's be clear about the bad water reporting. First of all, this is not a new phenomenon. In the past number of years, there have often been bad water reports, boil-water alerts and so on that have taken place in the province of Ontario. What we are doing is testing more often and discovering bad water reports more often, which is a good thing. It's a good thing to first establish what the problem is and make sure that the water you're providing the taxpayers and residents of this province is in fact clean. I am alarmed whenever we get a bad water report, but I also feel a comfort level in knowing that we're testing more often than any administration did in the past and we're discovering bad water alerts where possibly they wouldn't have been discovered in the past.

With respect to investments, my friend across the floor, you should know that we have committed to invest $750 million in clean, safe drinking water. In fact, we have spent or committed more than $1.2 billion for safe drinking water and sewer and water initiatives. I have met with AMO; I have met with the officials in the provincial ministry. We have worked with them to develop these pieces of legislation, endorsed by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. I think we've done a bang-up job. Rather than ask that question, you should be applauding us.

Ms Churley: The minister is saying they're doing the testing. What they're finding out is that there are bad water reports, and they're not doing anything about it. I wouldn't applaud for that.

There have been over 500 boil-water orders over the past year in this province. You have failed to fulfil the recommendations of the Walkerton inquiry. You have completed only 16 of 121 recommendations, by your own admission, Minister. Worse, we have obtained a copy of a cabinet document showing that you may delay until 2016 implementing the nutrient management regulations for 97% of farms. That's 16 years after the Walkerton tragedy. We know that farmers are working hard to protect the waterways, but delaying these rules for so long opens the door to more hog factories and potential contamination of our water.

Minister, will you agree today to pass my Ontario Drinking Water Source Protection Act so our drinking water is protected in this province?

Hon Mr Stockwell: First of all, that bill that you introduced, and the previous bill, were so flimsy; they're so inadequate. I had to redraft that thing. We had to work on that and put some meat on those bones so we could actually put something in place that was legitimate.

As far as the O'Connor report is concerned, we've implemented a lot of the O'Connor report; 60 or 70 recommendations have been implemented. But do you want to know what recommendations I'm most proud of? I'm most proud of the fact that we refused to grandfather operators of filtration systems. Do you know why? Because you grandfathered those folks and you allowed the Koebel brothers to operate in this province. We changed that. That's what I'm most proud of, that people like the Koebel brothers will never operate in the province of Ontario again.

Ms Churley: What disingenuous piffle. That's absolute nonsense. We're discussing the third anniversary of Walkerton here and you stand up with that kind of nonsense. The people of Ontario just heard how many systems are not operating cleanly in this province and you stand up with that nonsense.

I want to know why the minister has not spent that $200 million that was specifically set aside to fix dangerous water systems in this province so we will not have another Walkerton. That is what this is all about.

Hon Mr Stockwell: I take great exception to the "piffle" comment. I think this government has moved swiftly, accurately and has spent a significant amount of money on the O'Connor report. I think we have worked very hard to implement the O'Connor report. I think it was a tragedy in Walkerton. We all know the tragedy in Walkerton took place, and we're working to ensure it doesn't happen again.

We also all know that the tragedy in Walkerton had many components, and many administrations were involved in those components. I will say this: I haven't wasted my breath spending time going back over previous administrations. We all have responsibilities. We are working to put a better water system in this province: we have spent money, we have invested time, we have passed legislation, and we have committed to the people of this province that we will have the cleanest water in the world. I will add, which is significant to me, that we have done this over the protests and obstructionist tactics of the opposition. We're proud of our record, and we do have the cleanest water in the world.

WEST NILE VIRUS

Ms Shelley Martel (Nickel Belt): I have a question for the Minister of Health. At a briefing this morning, you were asked what you are doing to prepare doctors and nurses to deal with West Nile. Frankly, the answer that was given was completely inadequate. Family doctors, nurses and hospitals should all have information and directives in their hands now telling them what symptoms they should be on active alert for, when those symptoms should be reported and to whom. In conversations we've had with family doctors, infectious disease experts and chiefs of microbiology at hospitals in both Toronto and Ottawa, it's clear that no one has received any directives or protocols from your ministry regarding West Nile. What are you waiting for, Minister, the outbreak to actually occur?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): That's just not true. This virus has been in this province for the last two years. There have certainly been a lot of occasions when information about symptoms and treatment has been shared with family physicians, public health authorities and our hospitals. Many hospitals already have experience treating the West Nile virus, unfortunately, but factually that is true. Certainly all the information we have available and all the information that is clinically available is shared.

Ms Martel: I repeat that the family doctors, the infectious disease experts and the chiefs of microbiology in hospitals in both Ottawa and Toronto with whom we spoke today confirm they have not received one protocol or directive from you regarding how to deal with West Nile. This is important, because we know that yesterday a dead crow infected with West Nile was reported in Ottawa. That means human infection is, regrettably, not far behind.

Last year, health care providers were told to look out for encephalitis-like symptoms that might mean West Nile. This year, they should be told to be on active alert for fever and rash, for symptoms similar to polio or for viral meningitis, but no one we have spoken to in hospitals or family doctor practices have said they received any protocol or directive from your ministry on what to look for, what to be on active alert for, whom to report to or what to do after that.

Minister, I say to you, it's your responsibility to be preparing health care providers for West Nile. When are you going to do that?

Hon Mr Clement: Two things. First of all, she asked them about protocols. She should know that protocols are only a function of a provincial emergency situation, so if you ask them specifically about protocols, the answer is going to be no, because there is no provincial emergency. If the honourable member thinks it is the Minister of Health's responsibility to tell doctors how to be doctors and to tell nurses how to be nurses, perhaps that would be the way it would work under an NDP government, but we on this side of the House have confidence in our doctors, confidence in our nurses, confidence in their education and confidence in their training. We know they will do the job for the people of Ontario.

WALKERTON TRAGEDY

Mr James J. Bradley (St Catharines): I have a question for the Attorney General. Minister, three years ago this week the town of Walkerton was in agony. In Walkerton, the people's stomachs were twisted with pain, their children were growing weak and dehydrated, and they were drinking more of the water that made them sick. The people of Walkerton expected the system to protect them, but it failed.

Three years later, the system is failing those families again. Every adult in Walkerton got $6,000 in compensation after the tragedy, but people suffering to this very day from the E coli they drank are still waiting for the rest of the compensation they were promised. For these people the disaster didn't end with the raising of the well-water advisory or the reports from Justice O'Connor. It is with them every day.

Your predecessor, Jim Flaherty, said the following: "This is about doing the right thing. Obviously, it's going to take millions of dollars, but we're going to do what it takes." Minister, why are the people of Walkerton still waiting for the full and adequate compensation promised to them to overcome their illnesses?

Hon Norman W. Sterling (Attorney General, minister responsible for native affairs): Under the settlement, a court oversees the operation of the plan, including the activities of the administrator, the mediators and the arbitrators. That independent court has appointed a claims adjusting firm, Crawford Adjusters Canada, who are taking care of the claims on a one-by-one basis and are working through them. According to the adjustors, more than $15 million had been issued in stage 1 claims as of the end of April of this year. Stage 1 refers to a minimum payment of $2,000. More than 9,000 applicants have been approved for stage 1. Those individuals who believe their losses exceeded the $2,000 minimum can apply for stage 2. Stage 2 payments will vary according to the type of compensation claimed. Crawford's records as of April 28, 2003, indicate the payment for stage 2 claims averages about $2,100 per person for minor illness.

We're working on it. We'll continue to work on it.

Mr Bradley: Minister, there are people in Walkerton who have suffered from irritable bowel syndrome every day for the past three years. Their colon will spasm or block up. They are in pain. Others suffer from reactive arthritis from the E coli. Their joints are stiff and painful. It can also make the eyes light-sensitive. In arbitration, people with irritable bowel syndrome or reactive arthritis are being told $3,000 will cover their three years of suffering -- $3,000 to help them live with a condition that could continue to plague them for the rest of their lives.

Minister, the people of Walkerton suffered horribly three years ago. Many of them are still suffering today. This pittance in compensation is an insult, many of them believe. Premier Harris said, "The people of Walkerton should not have to go to court to get the help they need. The important thing is to get money in their hands promptly. We can sort out the legal issues later." Minister, when will you ensure that the people of Walkerton don't have to come begging for compensation to your government, the compensation Premier Harris promised them?

Hon Mr Sterling: It should be noted, first of all, that this compensation plan was offered to all the people of Walkerton without any hesitation by the government of Ontario. Secondly, as the member who is questioning points out, the individual situation from person to person, from household to household, differs greatly, depending upon whatever sickness those people would have suffered. Therefore, it's necessary to go through those particular claims -- and there are many of them, as I said in my previous answer -- on a one-by-one basis, making certain that those people who suffered the greatest received the greatest compensation.

To date, we have paid out more than $21 million in stage 2 payments, as well as the $15 million that we have paid out in stage 1. This government has been most generous with regard to compensating the people of Walkerton for this terrible tragedy.

MEMBERS' STATEMENTS

CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF EASTERN ONTARIO

Mr Richard Patten (Ottawa Centre): This Harris-Eves government placed full-page partisan ads in three Ottawa daily newspapers last Saturday on the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. The information contained in the ads was absolutely nothing new. The people of eastern Ontario already know that CHEO has a built-in reputation as a centre of excellence. We already know that CHEO is a remarkable institution. We already know that until the SARS review is completed, the government is allowing CHEO to continue providing pediatric cardiac services.

The government knows full well that the people of eastern Ontario want to be reassured that their pediatric cardiac surgery is staying in Ottawa. Just before the last election the government told the people of London that their Children's Hospital of Western Ontario would keep all their specialized programs, but after the election, and despite the efforts of a human outcry, the government decided to centralize pediatric surgery in Toronto at Sick Kids, shutting down the service in London and Ottawa. The people of eastern Ontario need to know that the pediatric cardiac unit is staying at CHEO in Ottawa, now and in the future -- end of story.

The people in eastern Ontario are smart enough to see what these ads really are: partisan, promotional pieces that cost tens of thousands of dollars and should have been paid for by the Conservative Party of Ontario, not Ontario taxpayers. It is unethical, uncouth and despicable behaviour of this government at the expense of trusting Ontario citizens.

SARS [Dr Susan Tambly]

Mr Bert Johnson (Perth-Middlesex): I rise today to congratulate Premier Eves, Minister Clement, Doctors Colin D'Cunha and Jim Young, and all doctors, nurses and health employees and our entire medical community on a well-fought battle against SARS.

I want to recognize Dr Susan Tamblyn, medical officer of health for the Perth district health unit, who worked at the SARS provincial operations centre sharing her expertise in epidemics and pandemics. Her days were long and stressful, and I want her to know that we appreciate her hard work.

I also want to recognize the entire staff of Listowel Memorial Hospital, who dealt with a suspected case of SARS with great professionalism and care.

Now that we've defeated SARS, we have turned our attention to the economic fallout from the disease. I hope all Ontarians will take advantage of the tax holiday on accommodations and admissions and rediscover our great province. Next Monday is the Stratford Festival's opening night for its 51st season, and I want to remind everyone to include a trip to Stratford in their summer plans.

Having defeated SARS, we are being confronted by another disease with the potential for equally devastating economic repercussions. With a single case of mad cow disease in Alberta, the United States and other countries have closed their borders to Canadian beef and cattle. Last night I spoke to many farmers in my riding who are very worried. I know our testing system works. It identified the one isolated animal, but we need to make sure other countries know that too. We need to put the same effort into proving that our beef is safe that we put into proving that it is safe to visit Toronto.

ONTARIO WATER RESOURCES AMENDMENT ACT, 2003

Mrs Marland moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 32, An Act to amend the Ontario Water Resources Act / Projet de loi 32, Loi modifiant la Loi sur les ressources en eau de l'Ontario.

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

The member for a short statement?

Mrs Margaret Marland (Mississauga South): This bill provides that no one may sell in Ontario for human consumption water or ice in a sealed container or package or from a dispenser other than a water dispenser that is connected to a water distribution system of a municipality unless the water or ice meets the minimum standards prescribed in the regulation made under the act. The regulations can also regulate dispensers of water or ice for human consumption.

ONTARIO WATER RESOURCES AMENDMENT ACT (WATER SOURCE PROTECTION), 2003

Mrs Dombrowsky moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 35, An Act to amend the Ontario Water Resources Act with respect to water source protection / Projet de loi 35, Loi modifiant la Loi sur les ressources en eau de l'Ontario en ce qui concerne la protection des sources d'alimentation en eau.

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

The member for a short statement?

Mrs Leona Dombrowsky (Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington): The bill amends the Ontario Water Resources Act with regard to the availability and conservation of Ontario water resources. Specifically, the bill requires the director to consider the Ministry of the Environment's statement of environmental values when making any decision under the act.

The bill also requires that municipalities and conservation authorities are notified of an application to take water that, if granted, may affect their water sources or supplies.
 

ONTARIO DRINKING WATER SOURCE PROTECTION ACT, 2003

Ms Churley moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 36, An Act to protect sources of drinking water in Ontario / Projet de loi 36, Loi visant à protéger les sources d'eau potable en Ontario.

The Speaker (Hon Gary Carr): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

The member for a statement?

Ms Marilyn Churley (Toronto-Danforth): As members in the House are aware, we are marking the third anniversary of the tainted water tragedy in Walkerton. To help prevent such a tragedy, this bill offers protection of the sources of drinking water, because the protection of sources of drinking water is integral to the multi-barrier approach recommended in the Report of the Walkerton Inquiry. This bill sets out a framework for comprehensive watershed-based drinking water protection, as recommended by Justice O'Connor.

ORAL QUESTIONS

NURSES

Mr Raminder Gill (Bramalea-Gore-Malton-Springdale): My question is for the hard-working Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, who, despite the fearmongering of the opposition, solved the double cohort.

Minister, actually I wanted to ask you this question last week. As you are aware, last week was National Nursing Week, when we celebrate the contributions nurses make to improve our care and standard of living. Ontario is the destination of choice for many internationally trained nurses who want to put their skills to work in our health care system. Our government is committed to helping them become licensed to practise in Ontario. One of the excellent programs our government supports is the CARE for Nurses program. This is a partnership with Toronto's WoodGreen Community Centre, the Kabayan community centre, St Michael's Hospital, the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care and St Joseph's Health Centre. The CARE program is designed to increase the number of internationally trained nurses who pass the licence exam and become certified to practise nursing in Ontario.

Minister, recently you announced additional support for the CARE program. Can you please tell the House about this initiative and how it will help to improve nurses working in Ontario?

Hon Dianne Cunningham (Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, minister responsible for women's issues): I am here, obviously, with my colleagues in this Legislative Assembly to continue the celebration of nurses in Ontario and to congratulate them on the great job they do every day on the front lines. On April 29, I was at George Brown College here in Toronto as we made an announcement for the CARE nursing project. This is a project that supports more internationally trained nurses in being trained and given the kind of education they need to pass their credentials and their exams so they can get jobs. We announced $475,000.

I will say this is a model for the country, right here in Toronto. Now 115 nurses have become licensed, and 94 are working as registered nurses or registered practical nurses since this CARE program began. It's a great success story, and I hope we'll do much more of it.

Mr Gill: Thank you, Minister, for that answer. CARE for Nurses is just one of many programs that our government is supporting to help internationally trained professionals put their skills to work in Ontario. I understand, Minister, that we have programs to support immigrants who are pharmacists, technologists, midwives, computer programmers and a host of other professions that are high-demand in our economy.

Can you please tell the House what the results of the CARE for Nurses program have been so far and how it fits into our government's overall agenda to help internationally trained professionals practise their chosen profession in Ontario?

Hon Mrs Cunningham: Again, this new money will allow another 100 internationally trained nurses to be licensed and to get jobs. It's long overdue. It's a great success story.

My colleague the Minister of Health has a program to expand opportunities for internationally trained physicians. The CARE for Nurses program has more than doubled the success for internationally trained nurses to be successful in writing their exams, which is the most difficult part. Before this program, 33% of foreign-trained nurses passed the exam; now 70% of participants are succeeding. We should all be celebrating on behalf of them and their families.

The internationally trained pharmacy graduate program is in its early stages, but we already have 96 people licensed as internationally trained pharmacists. I see the former Minister of Health, who was supportive of this in the very beginning. It's a great thing to be invited to their graduation and to honour them and to share in their success with their families.

This is just two of 13 bridge training programs in Ontario. We've invested $15 million in bridge training programs, Mr Speaker, and I know you support this as well in your own riding. So thank you very much.

PRIVATE HOSPITALS

Ms Sandra Pupatello (Windsor West): My question is for the Minister of Health. Minister, last week we learned that a preferred bid has been selected for the private hospital plan at William Osler Health Centre in Brampton. From this it's clear that you've decided to push forward with your plans to privatize health care in this province. You still have not tabled any evidence to suggest that this is cheaper, faster or safer for the public in Ontario, and yet still you press forward.

I'd like to read a quote to you from Mr Romanow. He said, "Many of the so-called `new solutions' being proposed for health care -- pay-as-you-go, user and facility fees, fast-track treatment for the lucky few and wait-lists for everyone else -- are not new at all. We've been there. They are old solutions that didn't work then, and were discarded for that reason. And the preponderance of evidence is that they will not work today."

Minister, will you agree to stop plans to privatize our hospitals, freeze this contract process and go to the people in an election so that they will tell you they do not want to privatize?

Hon Tony Clement (Minister of Health and Long-Term Care): The Dalton McGuinty agenda is to stop a new hospital being built in Brampton, Ontario, for the people of Brampton and for the people of Caledon and for the people of Mississauga, to stop a 608-bed modern facility helping to attract more doctors and nurses, better equipment for our community care and hospital care, all university-accessible, all available under the Canada Health Act and the Public Hospitals Act. That's what a Dalton McGuinty government would do. It would stop a brand new hospital in Brampton. We on this side of the House want better health care in Brampton, want better health care in Ontario. We're going to move ahead.

Ms Pupatello: Minister, what you just said is absolute nonsense, and you know it. What we're telling you today is that not only are these private hospitals for Brampton, for Ottawa, for Markham-Stouffville, you've moved ahead with privatizing CTs and MRIs, and to this day you have tabled no evidence that it is safer, cheaper or more accessible to the public. The only way these private companies will make money, Minister, is if they operate with a different set of rules. It's the only way they can make money.

Minister, it is incumbent on you and your government to go to the people and ask them if they want privatization in the health system. We call on you: call an election before you let this happen. Call an election, Minister.

Hon Mr Clement: In this document, despite the honourable member's protestations, Dalton McGuinty promises to stop new hospitals being built under a public-private formula to make sure they happen earlier, to make sure they're available for the people of Ontario.

Our leader, our Premier, has said we want more health care, we want better health care and we want health care to be universally accessible. We want to use the private sector and the public sector to get better health care. The people of Ontario will choose. I know they'll choose the big plan, not this plan.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

THRONE SPEECH DEBATE

Resuming the debate adjourned on May 7, 2003, on the amendment to the amendment to the motion for an address in reply to the speech of His Honour the Lieutenant Governor at the opening of the session.
 

Mr Parsons: They do not have money to have nurses in the hospital. What kind of a hospital is it when they're forced to lay off nurses, not because of what they want, but because this government has underfunded the operating costs? Nurses are being laid off, while at the same time this rhetoric in here says that they're going to attract nurses.

We're seeing in Ontario half of our nurses being offered part-time hours, having to work at more than one hospital site, being given no benefits, while at the same time other jurisdictions are absolutely luring them away. The words are extremely hollow on this one.

Cancer care: two thirds of patients in Ontario, when diagnosed with cancer, do not get the treatment within the time frame recommended by the medical community. Within eight weeks, they do not get to start the radiation. This says, "No child, parent, senior or any citizen of a compassionate province should have to wait one moment longer than necessary to receive care." Two thirds of individuals in this province are not receiving the care in the time frame that they need for cancer.

They talk about improving hospitals. What they're going to do is allow the private sector to build hospitals and then rent them back. Isn't it strange, in our average, everyday life outside of this chamber, that each of us struggles to buy a residence, whether it be a condominium or a house? We want to move out of a rental apartment and into an apartment, condominium or house that we own, because we know that it is cheaper in the long run to own it rather than to forever pay rent. This move toward having the hospitals built by the private sector and owned by the private sector will force the government to pay rent forever on these buildings. Long after they're paid off, the rent will continue. This is taking what should be patient money and deflecting it into profit for a corporation.

Ms Shelley Martel (Nickel Belt): One of the glaring omissions in the throne speech involved lack of any mention of what this government intends to do with the Sudbury Regional Hospital. That's a glaring omission indeed, because it has been over a year