Steph Paquette

May 12, 2023

Families in Sudbury and Nickel Belt are tired of waiting for a family physician

France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt, asked the Minister of Health when the government will follow the recommendations of the Ontario College of Family Physicians to fix the provincial doctor shortage.
“Over 2.2 million Ontarians do not have a family physician; more than 360,000 of them are children. That number increases each and every month. It will reach three million people by 2025, as fewer medical students choose family practice, and more family physicians retire. The growing physician shortage will put more pressure on already overwhelmed hospitals, emergency departments, urgent care and even our long-term-care homes.

Family physicians need this government’s support to continue to provide top-quality care to us. They need access to team-based care, reduced administrative burdens and an electronic health record that actually works. Will this government listen to Ontario family physicians and act upon their recommendations?”

On February 9, 2023, the Ontario College of Family Physicians cited research from INSPIRE Primary Health Care which found that almost 15% of Ontarians do not have a regular family physician. They also stated previously that Ontario is on track to have 1-in-5 people without access to a family physician by 2025.

May 8, 2023

Bill 60 is the end of Medicare as we know it

France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt, rose this morning in the Legislature to urge government members of the Legislative Assembly to vote down Bill 60.

“Today is a sad day, a day that will go down in the history of our province as the day the Ford government delivered a fatal blow to our treasured Medicare. Today, this Conservative government will say “goodbye” to care based on needs and “come on in” to investors who want to make money off the backs of sick people. Because make no mistake, Speaker, there is a lot of money to be made off of people who are sick, who are desperate for care in the hope of getting better. Investors know that. They know that sick people are at a vulnerable time in their lives, and it is easy to abuse that vulnerability to increase profits.

The Minister says that we need the changes in Bill 60 to decrease wait times but look at our hospital job boards: there are over 36,000 health-care-job vacancies in our hospitals right now. How are they supposed to recruit when for-profit clinics will offer a Monday-to-Friday, 9 to 5 jobs? It will make the wait for hospital care increase tremendously. But the rich and powerful friends of our Premier, they will have faster access, using their credit cards to get to the front of the line, while the rest of us hold our hats.

To my MPP colleagues: Do the right thing. Vote down Bill 60. ”

The NDP put forward 74 amendments to Bill 60, which aimed to improve transparency, accountability, protect patients and ensure that the Colleges that regulate Ontario’s healthcare professionals will be able to maintain professionals’ oversight. The government voted down all these amendments.

April 27, 2023

What is the government doing to ensure that emergency rooms in Ontario can stay open?

France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt, asked the Minister of Health what the government will be doing to ensure that emergency rooms in Ontario hospitals do not have to keep closing.
“We heard what happened at Minden hospital; without any consultation, the residents were told their emergency room will closed for ever on June 1st. Now let’s look at Carleton Place hospital. The local hospital was forced to close its emergency department overnight because there weren’t enough staff to keep it open. A week before, it was its sister hospital that was closed overnight due to staff shortages—its third closure in as many months.

Ontario had exactly one, yes one, unplanned emergency room closure in the last 15 years. But in the last year alone we’ve now had 160, emergency room closures. 160 closures in a single year. This isn’t normal, Speaker, and we should not pretend that it is. What new measures will the Premier take today to stop the closure of emergency rooms across our province?”

This high number of emergency room closures last year was reported by the Ottawa Citizen on March 28th, 2023. A hundred and sixty emergency room closures in one year under this minister’s watch.

Let’s go to Chesley. In Chesley right now, if a child requires care on a Saturday, they are out of luck. Their local emergency room is now closed evenings and weekends due to staff shortages. People are worried that this is a sign that the end is near for their hospital. The member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound said that he wants Chesley hospital to return to full service. But it does not look good, Speaker. Would the Premier agree the people of Chesley deserve the services of a full-time emergency room? What will the government do to keep the emergency rooms open in our province?”

The Ontario Nurses Association says the conservative government Bill 124 is directly related to staff shortages.

April 24, 2023

Will the government properly fund Stevenson Memorial Hospital?

France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt, asked the Minister of Health whether the government will give the necessary funding to Stevenson Memorial Hospital to ensure that they do not have to lay off nurses.

“Speaker, as our province’s healthcare system continues to face staffing shortages and patients are seeing record wait times, more than a dozen nurses are being laid off at Stevenson Memorial Hospital. Can the Minister of Health explain what led this hospital to have to lay off 13 nurses?”

In November of 2022, the ONA stated that Ontario has at least 24,000 nurses fewer than the Canadian average.

“While most healthcare settings are desperately hiring nurses, Stevenson Memorial Hospital is laying off nurses because they are facing a deficit because the government does not fund them enough. We all know where those nurses will end up… working for big, for-profit corporations receiving hundreds of millions of dollars diverted from the public healthcare system to private profits.
Will this Government allocate the funds to Stevenson Memorial Hospital for the nurses that their patients need and deserve?”

This legislature’s own Financial Accountability Officer projected last month that we will be short 33,000 nurses and personal support workers by 2028.

April 20, 2023

Will the Premier investigate the for-profit use of Ottawa Hospital operating rooms?

France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt asked the Premier this morning whether he will investigate the leasing of operating rooms in an Ottawa Hospital for private, for-profit surgeries.

There have been 60 surgeries performed by for-profit companies on weekends at the Ottawa Hospital, Riverside Campus, and a further 60 more are scheduled to take place.

“Premier, we all know that the privatization of orthopaedic surgery, the poaching of staff from our public hospitals is exactly what this government wants to do with Bill 60. But section 4 of the Ontario Public Hospitals Act is very clear: Leasing any space in a public hospital requires the explicit written approval of the Ministry of Health. You can’t even put a Tim Hortons in a hospital without ministerial approval. The law in Ontario is clear: The Ottawa Hospital cannot lease its operating room without the explicit written approval of the Minister of Health. I hope the Premier knows that.

When will the Premier investigate the apparent breach of Ontario laws by the for-profit corporation leasing operating rooms at the Ottawa Hospital?” asked Gélinas.

April 19, 2023

Northern Ontarians need help with health travel costs

France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt spoke in the legislature this morning about the need for better funding to support Northern Ontarians who have to travel long distances to access healthcare.

“Speaker, the Northern Health Travel Grant (NHTG) was set up to ease the financial burden of Northerners having to travel down South for medical reasons. As it currently exists, the NHTG is leaving many Northern patients in vulnerable situations, unable to access the care they need.

You see Speaker, a patient needs to have the money upfront to travel to see a specialist and then weeks or months later they get reimbursed. Many low-income patients cannot afford those upfront costs, and so for them the door to treatment is closed shut.

The Minister knows that there is a barrier to care. So she gave me a list of 17 agencies in Nickel Belt who the Minister says provide upfront funding for those in need. My OLIP intern Sophie called each of those organizations. If you are a member of a First Nation, currently on Ontario Work or Ontario Disability Support Program, or a child registered with Easter Seals, you can get a bit of help. But for most people there is no help available.

Minister, this is wrong, people should not have to come to see me, desperate for care, but unable to pay for their bus ticket to Toronto. It’s clear Ontario needs an emergency fund, available to the people in the North facing these circumstances; because what we have now, does not work! ”

April 17, 2023

Will the government withdraw it’s appeal of Bill 124?

France Gélinas, NDP Health critic, asked the Premier if his government will respect Ontario’s health care workers, and withdraw the appeal of Bill 124.

“My question is for the Premier.  Speaker, it has been over 3 long years since this government introduced Bill 124. Does the Premier think freezing the wages of essential workers during a pandemic is a good recruitment and retention strategy? In hindsight does he think it was a good idea?”

Since 2019, nurses, PSWs and other healthcare workers, and many other public servants have had their total compensation capped at 1% increase per year.

“Although the Premier does not think our “health care heroes” deserve a raise; it turns out both employers and employees agree on retroactive pay for work done during the pandemic. Nurses and paramedics, are being awarded back pay as we speak.”

The time has come for this Premier to start working for workers; to treat our health care workers as heroes. Will the Premier withdraw his appeal of Bill 124?”

Bill 124 was found to be unconstitutional on November 29, 2022, after which the provincial government decided to appeal the court ruling.

April 5, 2023

MPP Gélinas reintroduces bill to increase transparency in health sector organizations

MPP France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) reintroduced the Transparent and Accountable Health Care Act. This bill aims to increase the transparency and accountability of health sector organizations receiving public funding.

“With the Ford Conservative government putting more of our public health dollars into for profit, investor led clinics; it’s very important that Ontario implement oversight provisions to protect those public dollars. We saw how much money could be pilfered during the ORNGE Air ambulance fiasco. The diluted chemo drug scandal showed Ontarians that lack of oversight can directly affect patient care” Gélinas stated.

“The government voted down all 74 NDP amendments to Bill 60 yesterday at the Social Policy committee. If patient and fiscal protections won’t be included in Bill 60 then the government needs to enact the mechanisms included in my bill.” Bill 60 will create a two tiers system, by allowing invertors led private clinics to operate surgical suites and diagnostic medical imaging clinics that would charge patients for many services.

The Transparent and Accountable Health Care Act would apply to health sector organizations, as well as to publicly funded suppliers. The Act would mandate more public disclosure for these organizations, including Executive Compensation and Salary Disclosure. The Act would also classify these organizations and suppliers as governmental organizations under the Ombudsman Act, and would permit Auditor General oversight.

Terence Kernaghan MPP for London North Centre, stated “Treatments for at least 665 patients at London Health Sciences Centre were affected by the Diluted Chemotherapy Drugs scandal. The Social Policy Committee of this Legislative Assembly met for weeks of hearings between April and October 2013 and created a strong report with multiple recommendations. To my knowledge none of those recommendations have been acted upon and that’s shameful. Ontario needs to learn from its mistakes and take action to ensure they don’t happen again.”

MPP Gélinas first introduced this bill in 2015, based on recommendations from the ORNGE air ambulance and the diluted chemotherapy drugs reports.

April 4, 2023

Will the government act on its promises to improve internet access in northern and remote communities?

France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt, asked the Premier this morning if the government will finally use the money designated in the budget for infrastructure, and follow through on promises to provide fast, reliable and affordable internet to Northern and remote communities.

“Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Premier, in my riding, many people and businesses are dependent on slow, unreliable, expensive internet. I have met with every internet provider. None of them is interested in setting up in Nickel Belt; as there is no money to be made. You can pay for all the infrastructure; they are not coming. So, we use phone lines with a 5mb download and 2mb upload speed.

How can businesses thrive with this? The Government keeps claiming they’ll spend billions on broadband, but last year they spent less than 2% of that money. Will the government finally get that money out the door and put in place a government-run system for fast and reliable internet at a reasonable price?”

Until 2014, much of Northern Ontario had publicly administered internet services through Ontera. This was given to Bell nine years ago, and since then, there have been no updates to the infrastructure serving Ontera customers.

March 30, 2023

Gélinas re-introduces bills on organ donation

NDP Health critic France Gélinas has re-introduced the Peter Kormos Memorial Act (Trillium Gift of Life Network Amendment), which would change organ and tissue donation in Ontario from an opt-in system to an opt-out system.

“This bill will take people off transplant wait lists and out of dialysis clinics” said Gélinas. “It will help not only save lives, but help transplant recipients live longer, more productive lives.”

The bill is named after Welland MPP Peter Kormos, who was passionate about organ donation. Kormos died March 30, 2013; ten years ago today.

“We have laws that ensure that in the event somebody dies without a will, his or her assets are distributed to the next of kin,” said Kormos in 2006. “If you don’t make a will in this province, it’s presumed that you intend for your assets to be given to your children, your grandchildren and your sisters and brothers in a statutory schedule of who constitutes next of kin. I tell you that presumed intent legislation would do the same for organs.”

Le 30 mars 2023

Mme France Gélinas réintroduis un projet de loi pour accroître les dons d’organes

La porte-parole du NPD en matière de Santé, Mme France Gélinas, a présenté une nouvelle fois le projet de Loi commémorant Peter Kormos (modification de la Loi sur le Réseau Trillium pour le don de la vie), projet de loi qui, une fois adopté, modifierait la politique ontarienne en matière de don d’organes et de tissus : plutôt que de présupposer le refus du don d’organes et de tissus et d’exiger un consentement explicite pour rendre possible le prélèvement d’organes et de tissus, c’est le consentement qui sera présupposé, tout en reconnaissant à chaque personne le droit de signaler avant son décès le refus dudit prélèvement une fois son décès advenu.

« Cette loi permettra de réduire les listes d’attente pour les personnes ayant besoin d’une transplantation et de garder les gens hors des cliniques de dialyse », a expliqué Mme Gélinas. « Elle permettra non seulement de sauver des vies, mais aussi d’aider les récipiendaires d’une transplantation à vivre mieux et plus longtemps ».

Cette loi porte le nom de feu le député provincial de Welland, M. Peter Kormos, auquel la cause du don d’organes tenait à cœur. M. Kormos est décédé le 30 mars 2013; il y a dix ans aujourd’hui.

« Nous avons des lois qui garantissent que, dans le cas où une personne décède sans avoir fait rédiger de testament, les avoirs de cette personne sont distribués à son parent le plus proche », a dit M. Kormos en 2006. « Dans cette province, si vous ne faites pas rédiger de testament, il est présupposé que vous avez l’intention que vos avoirs soient transmis à vos enfants, à vos petits-enfants et à vos frères et sœurs, en fonction d’une désignation statutaire. Je vous dis qu’une politique législative présupposant l’intention ferait la même chose pour le don d’organes ».