Just hours before the provincial government released a disturbing report from military personnel deployed to Ontario's COVID-19-ravaged long-term care homes, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath started off question period by focusing on seniors' residences.
Horwath continued her call for the government to launch a "full, independent public inquiry" into long-term care, denouncing the province's promised commission as "vague" and "government-controlled."
"Families who have lost loved ones deserve answers and they deserve action," Horwath said. "Is the premier prepared to truly change a broken system and take on the big corporate interests and Conservative lobbyists?"
With Premier Doug Ford not in the House, Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton fielded the question, saying the government "is committed to long-term care" and is "not only talking, it is walking."
She said the commission would have "public hearings, public input and...a public report," and called on the NDP to be "part of the collaboration as we transform and reform long-term care."
Horwath also called on the province to assign new management to more long-term care homes across the province including Extendicare Guildwood in Scarborough. She cited a quote from a lady whose mother had been staying at the home: "She went into Extendicare Guildwood healthier than most 86-year-olds and eight weeks later she was dead from COVID."
According to government data, 69 residents tested positive for COVID-19 at the home and 27 have died.
This comes one day after the Progressive Conservative government announced it was issuing "mandatory management orders" for two long-term care homes. The government said it was asking Southlake Regional Health Centre and Humber River Hospital to manage River Glen Haven Nursing Home in Sutton and Downsview Long Term Care in North York, respectively, for 90 days.
"Will the premier listen to families of Guildwood today and take over management at this home, ravaged by COVID-19?" Horwath asked.
Fullerton said she knows the COVID-19 situation is hard on families.
"When the mandatory management order was made to assist those two homes that were really having difficulties containing the spread of COVID-19, we did it thoughtfully," she said, not directly answering Horwath's question. "We will continue to take every measure necessary to help our families, our staff and our loved ones. We will do it every single time, thoughtfully."
Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter, who represents the riding of Scarborough—Guildwood, made the same request as Horwath on new management for Extendicare Guildwood.
Fullerton said the government is monitoring the "worst-hit homes" and that the military has been called in to help with some.
"Some of them are in crisis, and that’s why we’ve had to issue the mandatory management order," she said. "Other homes may be in crisis, but we’re managing to coordinate and collaborate with local hospitals, with other agencies, in finding a way forward for these homes."
She went on to say it has to be a "collaborative process" and that "issuing a mandatory management order is a last resort."
COVID-19 testing
Horwath then moved on to testing. The province has fallen short of reaching its capacity of processing 20,000 tests each day, with the province reporting that 9,875 tests had been completed on Monday.
"The fact is, for months the government has offered more excuses on testing than actual answers," Horwath said. "What assurances can the premier offer us that the new testing strategy will actually produce the results that every expert says we need in order to successfully reopen the economy when efforts to date have been so consistently falling short?"
Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province is "continuing to increase our testing volumes."
She pointed to new testing guidelines for assessment centres that "if someone appears and has symptoms of COVID, if they’re feeling unwell and want to be tested, they will be tested."
The province has recently tested residents and staff in long-term care homes and has moved on to testing those in retirement homes and other congregate care settings.
Elliott said the government would be releasing its new testing strategy "in the next day or so," and that the province is going to test "large places of business." She later talked about the need to test in places where there are "more outbreaks than others" and suggested meatpacking plants as an example.
"We know that we are going to be able to reach those numbers, over 20,000, and we will be able to do it on a consistent basis," she said, to which Horwath responded: "All I can say, speaker, is promises, promises."
Personal protective equipment
The NDP's co-deputy leader, Sara Singh, raised concerns about frontline workers like personal support workers not having adequate access to personal protective equipment (PPE).
"If there is enough PPE readily available, why are workers in this province still unable to access it?" she asked.
Elliott said despite global demand for PPE, the government "continue(s) to access PPE through our regular sources, through Ontario-made sources, so that we can build up our own reserves."
"We have PPE available. It’s available to all long-term-care homes. It’s available to all hospitals and other congregate settings. It is available. It is available on a daily basis. It can be accessed," she said.
Singh said it isn't just health-care workers who can't access PPE, but also other frontline workers such as taxi drivers.
"(They) have been asking this government for masks, gloves and protective shields they need to keep themselves and their passengers safe," she said, noting that at least <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/at-least-10-taxi-and-limo-drivers-working-out-of-pearson-have-died-since-start-of-pandemic-union-1.4927025" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">10 drivers</a> working out of Pearson airport have died.
"Will the government commit today to ensuring that every single worker in this province who needs PPE, no matter where they work, will have access to that personal protective equipment...?" Singh asked.
Elliott said there are "many people who could use PPE," and that for most, surgical masks would be sufficient. She said supervisors in health-care settings not giving staff access to PPE is "an entirely different issue from whether there was PPE or not."
"There will continue to be PPE available to all frontline workers who need it," she said.
Commercial evictions
Liberal MPP Lucille Collard asked the government whether it would help businesses by barring commercial evictions, as it has done with residential evictions.
"Why is the government not willing to use its power to take a measure to protect the tenants and to enact a measure to prevent evictions, just like it did for residential tenants?"
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark didn't directly answer the question, saying the finance minister has "addressed this question several times." He went on to list the government's support for businesses such as deferred taxes.
Scheduled surgeries and procedures
Former PC MPP Randy Hillier, who currently sits as an independent, turned to the government's decision to order hospitals to ramp down non-emergency surgeries in an effort to create capacity for COVID-19 patient.
Hillier said thousands of Ontarians have been "denied medical procedures."
"Minister, how many people have died waiting for heart surgery, organ transplants and other procedures? How many more are suffering because they cannot get cataract, knee and hip surgeries? Minister, will you tell the people of Ontario how many innocent people have died waiting for the premier’s emergency powers to end?"
Elliott said while waiting for surgeries has been "very, very difficult for very many people, and we are several hundred thousand procedures behind," the province needed to take this step.
"We are now working to get those procedures back in place," she said.
Hillier continued to push the minister on the issue: "To get the real picture of COVID, we need to know the consequences of your actions. Minister, will you provide the number of preventable deaths caused by the decisions taken by you and the de facto Premier, Dr. (David) Williams, or will this be kept secret and hidden?" Hillier was referring to the province's chief medical officer of health.
"I think there are many things to say here, but I’ll start with this," said Elliott, noting that the province has always had a "triage" system when it comes to things like cancer and heart surgeries.
"There’s been some modelling done with respect to deaths, but no one knows the exact number," Elliott, going on to say that "if people needed to have that surgery on an urgent basis, they would have had it."
Pandemic pay
NDP MPP Judith Monteith-Farrell noted that frontline workers who qualify for the pandemic salary top-up still haven't received the promised funds.
The program, a joint effort between Ontario and the federal government that would see works get an additional $4 an hour, was announced by Premier Doug Ford on April 25.
"When will this government ensure that frontline health-care heroes finally get the pandemic pay they deserve?" Monteith-Farrell asked.
"It should start flowing next week," said Elliott, adding the "sheer volume and the number of transfer payment agencies that we’re dealing with has held this up."
She said recipients would receive the payments from the date the announcement was made. Opposition parties and unions, meanwhile, have called on the payments to be retroactive to March.
Sick leave
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government would continue to speak with provincial officials about "ensuring that as we enter the recovery phase of the pandemic, every worker in Canada who needs it has access to ten days of paid sick leave a year."
The PC government overhauled labour legislation in 2018, cancelling paid sick days.
NDP Peggy Sattler took the prime minister's statement as an opportunity to question the PC government about whether it plans to reverse course.
"Now that the federal government has recognized the vital importance of paid sick days to allow workers to stay home when they are sick, will this government finally admit that cutting paid sick days was the wrong thing to do and commit to providing 10 days of paid sick leave for all Ontario workers?"
Government House Leader Paul Calandra noted that Trudeau's proposal was announced "during the COVID crisis."
"We have actually moved very quickly to protect the people of the province of Ontario, workers in the province of Ontario who have lost their job during COVID-19," he said, before trying to take a dig at the opposition.
"But never leave it to the NDP to miss an opportunity to try and conflate COVID issues, which are ravaging not only the Ontario economy but the entire global economy, and trying to gain political advantage in another sector," Calandra said.
Tweeting questions
And while Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner wasn't slated to ask a question in the House today, he did post on social media the questions he submitted in writing to the health minister. They included why the government hadn't already started testing asymptomatic workers in "high-risk categories" such as those in food processing plants and taxi drivers.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It wasn&#39;t my turn for an oral question today, but I submitted three written questions to the Minister of Health on the province&#39;s sluggish testing numbers. 
I will share the responses when I receive them. (1/4)<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/onpoli?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#onpoli</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/covid19ontario?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#covid19ontario</a> <a href="https://t.co/cRBXrfrHi4">pic.twitter.com/cRBXrfrHi4</a>
&mdash; Mike Schreiner (@MikeSchreiner) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeSchreiner/status/1265316700603527169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Your Question Period Briefing: ‘Promises, promises’

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