Dialogue with Dawn – January, 2023

What a fantastic yet busy start to the year. The provincial government has announced several initiatives to make it more convenient for people to connect to care closer to home, to better integrate and use community surgical and diagnostic centers, and to bring reinforcements to the frontlines of our health care system.

You are now able to skip the doctor’s office visit and go straight to a local pharmacy to receive prescriptions from highly trained pharmacists for thirteen common ailments, including rashes, pink eye, insect bites or urinary tract infections at no extra cost. This new service is in addition to pharmacists being able to renew prescriptions for most medications, such as blood pressure, diabetes, and asthma medication.

When it comes to your health, the status quo is no longer acceptable. Our government is taking bold action to eliminate surgical backlogs and reduce wait times for publicly funded surgeries and procedures. We will add 14,000 more OHIP-insured cataract surgeries each year, expand community-based clinics to perform more surgeries such as cataracts and MRI and CT imaging and introduce legislation to expand surgeries for hip and knee replacements in community-based clinics by 2024. By increasing the availability of publicly funded health services in Ontario, our government is ensuring Ontarians currently waiting for specialized surgeries will have greater access to the world class care you need, where you need it. Timely access to surgery and diagnostic imaging is critical to increasing early detection for diagnoses and improving people’s prognosis and quality of life, in addition to reducing pressure on the health care system in the long-term.

With the introduction of a new ‘As of Right’ rule, Ontario is the first province to allow health care workers registered in other provinces and territories to immediately start working and caring for people here in our province. This is the kind of innovative solution that helps bring reinforcements to our health care system in the most expedient manner. In addition, we are expanding Ontario’s Learn and Stay grant to include nurses, paramedics, and med-techs in more underserved and growing communities. Eligible students will receive full, upfront funding for tuition, books, and other direct educational costs in return for working and caring for people in the region where they studied for a term of service after they graduate. With more than 12,000 new nurses registering to work in Ontario last year – a record breaking year – and another 30,000 nurses studying at a college or university, the expanded Learn and Stay grant will continue to increase the number of health care workers providing care to people, closer to home.

I was so pleased to start the New Year by visiting CMHA York Region to congratulate them on receiving a Resilient Communities Fund grant of $104,000.00 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. This grant is supporting the expansion and adaptation of CMHA’s mental wellness and recovery programming within their Recovery College providing an innovative learning space where anyone can access free courses, webinars, workshops, and events to learn, gain new skills, and connect with others in our community.

It was wonderful to welcome the Minister of Seniors and Accessibility to our community. We toured Newmarket and Aurora to announce three Seniors Community Grants that will support seniors programming. Another great welcome to the Minister of Education who provided York Region DSB an approval to award the tender for the construction of the new Aurora 2C Elementary School. This $23.8 million dollar investment will build a state-of-the-art elementary school that will create 638 new education spaces as well as 39 new childcare spaces.

In mid-January, I welcomed the Ministry of Finance who hosted a pre-budget consultation in Newmarket with the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Finance, Stephen Crawford, myself and two of my York Region colleagues, MPP Michael Parsa, and MPP Daisy Wai as we had the opportunity to hear from various leaders in our community on how we can ensure that Ontario is the best place to live, work, and raise a family.

Just last week, the Minister of Energy visited Newmarket to join me for the official launch of the Green Button at Newmarket Tay Power. The Green Button is a step in the right direction to make life more affordable and empower our residents and businesses to reduce and shift their energy usage based on their own needs.

I look forward to attending numerous events and festivities in the community during the month of February as we celebrate Black History Month and Family Day.

To arrange a meeting with me, please call 905-853-9889.

MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy, Newmarket-Aurora