PC MPPs tout “Your Health Act,” state it will reduce wait for

By Ron Giofu

Local Progressive Conservative MPPs believe a recently introduced bill will have a dramatic impact in reducing wait times for publicly funded surgeries and diagnostics.

The Ontario government introduced the Your Health Act, 2023 Feb. 21, which outlines the province’s next steps in its plan to reduce wait times for surgeries, procedures and diagnostic imaging, while enabling its new “As of Right” rules to automatically recognize the credentials of health care workers registered in other provinces and territories.

“With the Your Health Act, Ontario is boldly breaking with a status quo that has stifled innovation and struggled to respond to growing challenges and changing needs,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health in a press release. “Instead, our government is being bold, innovative and creative. We’re making it easier and faster for people to connect to convenient care closer to home, including and especially the surgeries they need to maintain a high quality of life.”

Based on feedback from frontline partners, the Ontario government states the Your Health Act, 2023 will, if passed, enhance guardrails to integrate community surgical and diagnostic centres into the health system, enhance quality standards and oversight while protecting the stability of doctors, nurses and other health-care workers in public hospitals and other health-care settings. The legislation will also, if passed, put into law that people will always access insured services at community surgical and diagnostic centres with their OHIP card and never their credit card, consistent with the Canada Health Act.

Citing cataract procedures as example, Essex MPP Anthony Leardi said prior to the pandemic, people who needed such surgeries would have to have them done in hospitals and face longer wait times. When COVID-19 hit, such procedures were allowed to be done in offices and surgical centres like the Windsor Surgical Centre. Passing the Your Health Act would allow that to continue, said Leardi.

“It worked so well, we want to make it permanent,” he said.

Leardi said instead of going to a hospital, a person could go to a clinic like that of Dr. Fouad Tayfour and it would be covered by OHIP.

As the province expands the types of surgeries and procedures being done in the community to include hips and knees and orthopedics, the government stated it will ensure the new community surgical and diagnostic centres have in place the highest quality standards with strong oversight. The Your Health Act, 2023 will, if passed, enable the province to designate one or more expert organizations as inspecting bodies of the centres. To be completed before hips and knees and orthopedics are expanded to community surgical and diagnostic centres, these expert organizations will work with Ontario Health and the Ministry of Health to establish, maintain and publish quality and safety standards and establish schedules for regular inspections of the centres.

Leardi said a second benefit is if a surgery is done in a clinic, it frees up resources at area hospitals.

“Now that you are not going to a hospital, someone who needs a hospital bed can get a hospital bed,” he said.

The Act would benefit areas like Northern Ontario, he said, and allow people to stay closer to home instead of driving “hours and hours” to get services.

“They’ll be able to get surgeries closer to home when they need it,” said Leardi.

The Your Health Act, 2023 will also, if passed, require centres applying for a licence to provide details of its quality assurance and continuous quality improvement programming, including policies for infection prevention and control. Also, if an individual believes they did not receive the highest quality care, the Your Health Act, 2023 will, if passed, also mandate that every community surgical and diagnostic centre must have a process for receiving and responding to patient complaints.

The Your Health Act, 2023 will, if passed, enable the recently announced “As of Right” rules that allow health care workers registered in other provinces and territories to immediately start working and caring for people in Ontario without having to first register with one of Ontario’s health regulatory colleges. These changes will help health-care workers overcome bureaucratic delays that have made it difficult to practice in Ontario. Leardi highlighted that portion of the bill and said it will allow medical professionals who trained in other parts of Canada to receive automatic recognition and not need any additional training or certification.

“We are ready to take you in,” said Leardi.

The legislation will also, if passed, strengthen protections for personal health information and data as the province puts in place new models to better inform policy and program planning to improve services. These changes will support improvements to the health care system by integrating data while enhancing privacy protection, transparency and accountability for organizations that collect and use data.

Newmarket-Aurora MPP and Minister of Health Parliamentary Assistant Dawn Gallagher Murphy, Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie and Leardi visited Tayfour’s clinic recently. Murphy said hip and knee replacement surgeries have a two-year waiting list in her riding and she believes passage of the bill will lessen that. Tayfour indicated he is in favour of the proposed legislation, adding he has patients coming from as far as London and Sarnia.

“The wait list there is longer than it is here,” he said.

Enbridge Gas Inc.

Notice of Study Commencement and Information Sessions

Boblo Island Community Expansion Project

Enbridge Gas Inc. (Enbridge Gas) is proposing to construct the Boblo Island Community Expansion Project (the “Project”) to supply the community of Boblo Island with affordable natural gas. The Project is located in the Town of Amherstburg, Essex County, Ontario.

The Project will involve the construction of approximately 2.9 kilometres (km) of a combination of 2-inch plastic and 4-inch steel pipeline. The proposed pipeline will tie-in to an existing Enbridge Gas 4-inch steel pipeline near the intersection of Dalhousie Street and Park Street in Amherstburg. The pipeline will cross the Detroit River (approximately 600m) to reach Boblo Island. The distribution system on the island will be approximately 2.3 km in length. The Project is planned to be within the existing municipal road Right-of-Way (RoW) with the potential for Temporary Working Space (TWS). The proposed pipeline route has been developed for purposes of an assessment of potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts and does not represent the final project scope/design that will provide access to natural gas to end-use customers. For further details, please refer to the map below.

Consultation with Indigenous communities and engagement with landowners, government agencies, the general public, and other interested persons is an integral component of the planning process. As such, two Information Session options will be held.

As a result of inclement weather, the planned Inperson Information Session on February 22, 2023 was cancelled and has been rescheduled as follows:

In-person Information Session

Monday, March 20, 2023

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Libro Credit Union Centre

3295 Meloche Road, Amherstburg, ON

Virtual Information Session

Tuesday, February 21, 2023, to Tuesday, March 7, 2023 https://www.solutions.ca/Enbridge-BobloIsland

A copy of the Information Session story boards will be available for viewing on the Enbridge Gas project website provided below. A questionnaire will be available as part of the Information Sessions, and you will have the opportunity to provide comments and/or questions about the proposed Project. Input received during the Information Sessions will be used to develop sitespecific environmental protection and mitigation measures for the Project. Input and comments for the Project should be provided by April 19, 2023

As part of the planning process, Enbridge Gas has retained Stantec Consulting Ltd. (Stantec) to undertake an Environmental Study for the Project. The Environmental Study will fulfill the requirements of the Ontario Energy Board’s (OEB) “Environmental Guidelines for the Location, Construction, and Operation of Hydrocarbon Pipelines and Facilities in Ontario, 7th Edition (2016)”. It is anticipated that an Environmental Report for the study will be completed in June 2023, after which Enbridge Gas will file an application to request an OEB Leave to Construct (LTC) for the Project. Should the OEB find the Project to be in the public’s interest, construction is anticipated to commence as early as Q2 2024.

Michael Candido Environmental Scientist

For any questions or comments regarding the Environmental Study or the proposed Boblo Island Community Expansion Project, please reach out to: