Steph Paquette

November 2, 2022

Stop Disrespecting Public Sector Workers and Get Back to the Table!

NDP Health critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) questioned the Minister of Education on the Ford government’s pattern of disrespecting public sector fields, especially those dominated by women.

“We are joined today by members of OSSTF and OPSEU, including medical laboratory technologists, teachers, social workers, educational assistants, early childhood educators and many other essential workers. They are calling for immediate action to respect all those public sector workers. Premier, will you listen to those professionals and other unionized public sector workers; withdraw Bill 28 and go back to the bargaining table with CUPE?”

The Ford PC government tabled legislation Monday that would impose a contract on Ontario’s education support workers and ban their right to legally strike. If passed, the bill would invoke the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to eliminate the rights to collectively bargain and strike for the first time in Canada.

Gélinas continued “This government has established a pattern of disrespecting and devaluing public sector workers. We are seeing it in health care, and we are seeing it in education. They seem to have a particular disdain for sectors dominated by women workers. We have seen it with the devastating impact of this government’s low-wage policy – Bill 124.

Education workers and health care workers are exhausted, demoralized and leaving their jobs. Yet the government continues to deny what they and many other people want, this government to respect their Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They want them to go back, talk to CUPE, get an agreement that nobody likes—you won’t like it; CUPE won’t like it—but everybody can live with. Will you withdraw Bill 28 and go back to the negotiation table?”

October 31, 2022

Time for the Province to Properly Fund Hospices and Palliative Care

This morning during question period MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked the Ford government why Ontario Hospices continue to struggle to access proper government funding.

“Members of Hospice Palliative Care Ontario are at Queen’s Park today. Their message is really clear: Annualized operating funding increases are needed now to prevent the collapse of the lower cost, highly valued hospice sector. Does the Premier thing that palliative care patients should go grocery shopping, cook their own food, wash their own dishes? Does he think that they should change their own bed and do their own laundry? Does he think that they should clean their room, wash the floor, take their trash to the curb? Does he think that palliative care patients should pay for heat, hydro, telephone, cable, Internet? I don’t. Why is it that the Premier does not fund any of these basic services in Ontario hospices?’’ Gélinas asked.

Hospice and Palliative Care Ontario’s recent user survey found that more than half of family caregivers reported that hospice volunteer support helped avert a trip to the ER saving the system $10,000,000 in unnecessary ER visits.

“The government funds 50% of the operating cost of our hospices. The community funding model that the hospices depend on is broken. The words “hospice palliative care” are nowhere in the last budget that this government tabled. The reality is that the costs continue to escalate while community donation power is challenged by economic realities, including the pandemic. Hospices are not only a pressure valve for emergency room crises, but they’re an access point for grief, for bereavement, for mental health services. Members of Hospice Palliative Care are here to remind us that hospice palliative care means system savings and efficiencies. It means improved patient care and caregiver experience.

Nobody should spend their last day alive washing dishes. Can your government commit today to funding hospices to a minimum of 70% of their operating costs?”

In the last five years, 23,000 people in Ontario were discharged from hospital or bypassed hospital going to a hospice residence according to Hospice and Palliative Care Ontario.

September 14, 2022

Ford government confirms cruel scheme to bill hundreds a day, send seniors hours away

NDP responds to disturbing new details of legislation forcing people into long-term care

On Wednesday the Doug Ford government confirmed Bill 7 will force people into long-term care homes they didn’t choose as far as 150 kilometres away, and require hospitals to charge families $400 a day if a senior doesn’t want to move there. NDP Health Care critic France Gélinas and NDP Long-Term Care critic Wayne Gates released the following statement in response:

“Now we know that Doug Ford’s government will require all hospitals to bill all families ready for long-term care a whopping $400 a day — or wave goodbye to their loved ones and watch helplessly as they are ordered to move hours away. Removing frail elderly people from their loved ones and essential caregivers is horrifying, and will cause seniors’ health and well-being to go downhill fast. Imagine having to drive two hours to kiss your wife goodnight. Imagine the guilt of knowing you can’t afford to pay $400 a day to keep your dad in hospital, and having to put him in a for-profit long-term care home with a devastating record and disgusting living conditions.

These seniors do not have doctors and nurses assigned to them when they’re in hospital. Forcing them to move will not ease our health care staffing crisis one bit. What we should be doing is addressing the staffing crisis at the heart of our health care crisis, not playing a cruel game of musical chairs that kicks seniors and people with disabilities out of hospital beds.”

September 8, 2022

Minister Jones is ashamed to talk about her privatization plans

This morning during question period MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked the Ford government why the Ministry of Health is exacerbating the health human resources crisis by encouraging private clinics to siphon staff from our public hospitals.

“People who waited hours in the emergency room in pain. People who had to leave the hospital without getting the care they needed. People who have waited in agony for urgent surgery. All this because of staff shortages, being made worse every day by this government’s actions.Why is this government willing to make the waiting worse by expanding private surgical clinics siphoning more of our staff away from public hospitals?’’

Over the summer more that 26 hospitals have temporarily closed their emergency departments due to staff shortages.

“Families in Ontario have watched as the crisis in health care has gotten worse and worse. Over the summer, at least 26 hospitals have been forced to close their emergency department to patients. And across the province, nurses and health care workers are leaving in droves. More than ever, we need a plan to strengthen publicly-delivered health care and support nurses and front line health care workers who provide it. Why is this government so determined to let this crisis go on and tell us that the only way out is to privatize more of our health care system?”

In August the Ford government announced they will increase surgical capacity by funding surgical procedures in private facilities; although they did not specify the type of surgeries that would be done in these clinics.

“Nurses and health care workers have been crystal clear: this government is making the health care crisis worse. Whether it is punishing seniors by forcing them away from their family into substandard for-profit long-term-care homes; whether it is funding more for-profit clinics, pulling money and staff away from the public system, the crisis is getting worse not better. No one in Ontario should be wondering whether the emergency department is going to be open when they need it” Gélinas concluded. “Will the government stop selling more of our health care system to private investors and bring in a staffing strategy that will improve publicly delivered health care”

September 7, 2022

Care for seniors at home, don’t force them into LTC homes

This morning during question period MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) asked the Ford government why they continue to ignore expert and public opinions, and force seniors out of hospital and into long term care homes without their consent.

“Over the last month, seniors, their families, physicians, nurses and health experts have all warned the government that Bill 7 will do nothing to stop emergency room closures. It will do nothing to hire or retrain more nurses or to end the crisis in our health care system. An opinion poll in today’s Globe and Mail confirms that a majority of Ontario families agree. Why is the government plowing ahead with this dangerous plan?’’

This morning, a new Nanos Research poll conducted for The Globe and Mail suggests most Ontarians are uncomfortable with Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s law that will move, elderly patients who no longer need acute care, in nursing homes, without their consent.

The Ford government’s Bill 7 passed third reading last week, the bill “authorizes certain actions to be carried out without the consent of these patients, having a placement co-ordinator select a home and authorize their admission to the home.” Numerous organizations have spoken out, asking the government to withdraw this legislation which may override patient rights.

“Patients are already feeling the pressure from hospitals. Vulnerable people are being told their best option is to move into an expensive retirement home or a long-term care home they don’t want to go to. The government should be supporting people in their own home. That’s what they want. Why is the government pushing frail elderly people into long-term care homes against their will and without their consent?” Gélinas continued “Our home care system fails more people than it helps every single day, Speaker. The crisis in the health care system will not be solved by pushing our elderly away from their families into for-profit, long-term care homes that nobody wants to live in.

The health care system needs a permanent solution to recruit and retain valued health care workers, like permanent paid sick days, like repealing Bill 124, like giving nurses a chance to negotiate a fair wage after two and a half years of hell. Will the government stop pushing risky plans that are opposed by the majority of Ontarians and commit to solutions that actually address the crisis in our health care system?

September 7, 2022

MPPs Gélinas and West re-introduce bill to respect Auditor General’s authority

NDP MPPs France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) and Jamie West (Sudbury) are re-introducing a bill on Wednesday to eliminate any future challenges to the role or powers of Ontario’s Auditor General.
The bill is being re-introduced as the Auditor’s powers of investigation can still be challenged by public organizations who “lawyer up”.

The people of Sudbury, and Ontario still wait for the Auditor’s final report on Laurentian University which has been greatly delayed by unnecessary legal challenges; the interim report was issue in April 2022.

“For over a year, the Auditor General was trying to get answers about the root causes of Laurentian University’s bankruptcy” said Gélinas. “What should have been a clear and simple audit of a publicly funded organization, overseen by the provincial government, ended up with many legal challenges to the Auditor’s authority. The Auditor has also filed for an appeal which will cost the people of Ontario a lot of money; all these expenses could be avoided by passing our bill. The current situation is disrespectful to the people of Ontario and has added large legal fees to an already bankrupt institution. The Auditor General has asked for these legislative changes to eliminate any ambiguity about her powers and responsibilities in the future.”

The Auditor General Amendment Act, 2022 will make it even clearer that the Auditor General has the right to request and see any documents she needs to do her work, said MPPs West and Gélinas.

“The people of Sudbury want Laurentian to be successful. They want to help rebuild. However, the University’s lack of transparency delayed this from happening. That made people incredibly frustrated and angry,” said West. “Although the auditor has already released an interim report on the subject of Laurentian University, this bill will ensure the Auditor General can work unimpeded in the future.”

“I was lucky enough to participate in the Canadian Council of Public Accounts Committees (CCPAC) in Ottawa last week. There, I had the opportunity to speak with Auditors and members of public account’s committees from legislatures across the country. After these discussions I am more convinced then ever that we need these legislative changes here in Ontario” stated Gélinas. “Laurentian’s actions hurt the public’s trust in an institution that my community is proud of, we must ensure this never happens again.”

September 6, 2022

Listen to Workers, cancel Bill 124 and stop privatizing our health care system

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas rose is the legislature this morning to share her observations from yesterday’s Labour day celebrations at Morel Park in Sudbury.

Speaker, yesterday was the perfect day to join the labour day celebrations in Sudbury. A big thank you to Jessica Montgomery and the whole team at the Sudbury and District Labour Council for a well organized and fun event. Thank you to the hundreds of people who join us with their families and friends.

Lots of education and health care workers came out and they had a clear united message for this government:

1- Repeal bill 124. It is illegal, discriminatory, disrespectful and it demoralized our tired and burned-out health care heroes.
2- Make PSWs a career with permanent FT job, with good pay, benefits, sick days and a pension plan so we can ensure quality home and community care and Long-Term Care
3- Stop the privatization of Ontario health care system

Many labour retiree were there, some quite elderly; they are scared. Bill 7 is causing seniors to second guess whether they should go to the emergency room when they are sick in fear of ending up being labelled ALC. Bill 7 takes the rights of frail elderly people away and allows the government to move them to a Long Term Care home focused on profit, not on quality care. In Northern Ontario being transfer to a LTC home away from home means a lot of hardship for elders and their family.

Everyone at the labour day celebrations agreed; Solidarity is the way forward and the NDP will always stand in solidarity with workers. Solidarity Forever.”

September 1, 2022

Care for seniors at home, don’t force them into substandard LTC

The Ford government should be improving homecare not forcing seniors into term care facilities far away from their circle of care and their families said MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) during question period.

“The government is attacking senior’s fundamental right to give consent, forcing them into long-term care facilities far away from their loved ones, but they continue to ignore the failures in our home care system. Most alternate level of care patients in our hospitals aren’t waiting for a long-term care bed they are waiting for home care.

But the wait lists for home care have tripled under the Ford Government.

Why is the government overriding people’s rights to give consent when they have not made any improvements to the home care system that would allow frail, elderly people to stay in their homes safely and respectfully?’’

Yesterday, the Ford government’s Bill 7 passed third reading. This bill which “authorizes certain actions to be carried out without the consent of these patients… having a placement co-ordinator… select a home and authorize their admission to the home.” Numerous organizations including the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly and the Alzheimer’s Society have spoken out asking the government to withdraw this legislation which may override of patient rights.

“The government is threatening seniors with massive fees and forcing them away from their families when they should be fixing our home care system. Instead, wait lists are growing and home care workers are leaving the sector.

Speaker 90% of Ontario seniors want to age at home not in a LTC home.

This government could bring 10,000 workers back to the job they love by mandating home care providers offer 70% permanent Full-time jobs, well paid, with benefits, sick days and a pension plan. Why is this government standing by while private for profit home care providers fail more frail elderly people each and every day?”

August 31, 2022

Bill 7 is a scheme to bully people into LTC homes they don’t want to go to

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas released the following statement in response to the passage of Bill 7, Doug Ford’s legislation forcing people waiting in hospitals to move to a long-term care home they don’t want to go to:

“I cannot tell you how upsetting it is to see Bill 7 pass third reading. This bill that will take away the rights of frail, elderly people to consent to treatment. This is a right that we all have. When dealing with a health professional you always have a right to consent or the right not to consent; under this bill, frail, elderly people don’t matter, their consent doesn’t matter.

If Mr. Ford really wanted to fix hallways healthcare, he could fix homecare immediately by ensuring home care providers provide 70% permanent, full-time jobs, well paid with benefits, sick time and a pension plan, and problem solved. Tens of thousands of PSWs will come back to do what they like to do, to do what they’re good at doing, caring for people at home.

Unfortunately, the government doesn’t want to listen to any of this. The government wants to send elderly people away from their families. In the north, it will be hundreds of kilometres away to a for profit home that hasn’t been renovated in 50 years, with one bathroom per floor; how can the government vote in favour of this?

This decision is inhumane. It’s never too late to tear up this bad legislation and save families the pain of having their loved ones forced into long-term care homes they don’t want to go to.”

August 29, 2022

Ford Government must take action to protect vulnerable health care workers

The Ford government should be actively protecting front line healthcare workers said MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) during question period.

“The level of violence in our health care system is through the roof. It is a huge contributor to health care workers walking away from their job. One in two health care workers faces violence or harassment at work. Two-thirds of nurses facing violence at work are thinking of quitting their job.

What is the government doing to make sure nurses are free from violence and harassment at work?’’

As emergency room wait times continue to rise, Ontario’s patients are frustrated and taking out their anger on front line staff. According to recent polling by Oracle Research on behalf of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) there is a disturbing surge in physical and sexual violence against the women who make up 85% of hospital workers. The poll found that 60% of HSN (and northern Ontario) respondents experienced physical violence. 65% have witnessed an increase in violent incidences during the COVID-19 pandemic. 53% report feeling depressed and emotionally exhausted because of the overall conditions at work.

‘I introduced Bill 11 Speaking out about, and reporting on workplace violence and harassment. The bill would protect nurses, health care workers and other workers from an employer’s reprisal if they speak out about violence and harassment in their workplace. It would require hospitals and long-term-care homes to publicly report on workplace violence and harassment on a monthly basis.

Is the government ready to start protecting health care workers and support the solutions presented in my bill?”

Minister of Labour, Monte McNaughton ignored Gélinas plea and pointed to the government’s hiring of 100 new health and safety inspectors as adequate to protect Ontario’s health care heroes.