August 9, 2006

Runnymede Healthcare Centre, Toronto
by David Caplan, Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal

Check against delivery.

Hello everyone – it’s a great pleasure to be here today.  And I’m delighted to be sharing the stage here with my esteemed colleague George Smitherman from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.   

And I’m particularly pleased to be part of this very exciting announcement.

Investing in health care is one of the McGuinty government’s top priorities.

This project is one of many hospital projects underway across the province as our government builds opportunities for Ontarians to achieve better health care through shorter wait times for key services.

We’re investing in the revitalization of the Runnymede Healthcare Centre. This important investment will give Toronto residents and everyone in the region better access to complex continuing care services.

This investment is part of the more than $5 billion we are investing in health care through ReNew Ontario, our government’s five-year infrastructure investment plan.

By modernizing our hospitals, we’re building a stronger, more accessible health care system that contributes to a quality of life that is second to none.

We’ve made dozens of these announcements in other communities in every part of Ontario – more than 100 similar projects will be started or completed over the next five years.
The net result of these announcements will be better treatment and better access to health care for people in every region of this province.

I am proud to be playing a part in what amounts to a major overhaul of our health care infrastructure. We’re making real, significant progress on our plan to improve health care services and reduce wait times for Ontarians.

And folks, I tell you, it’s coming not a moment too soon.

Over many decades, governments have consistently been short-changing people on the investments in vital public facilities that were needed – from hospitals, to schools, to highways to water and sewage treatment plants.

Our government is turning that situation around – not just in health care, but also across the whole spectrum of public infrastructure.

For the first time, the Government of Ontario has a rational and coherent plan to restore the public infrastructure we all depend on for our health, for our education, for our economic prosperity and our quality of life.

We have a big job ahead of us. It will take years to renew the facilities we need for our growing and aging society.

But even the longest journey begins with a single stepfollowed by another, and then another. And we are taking one of those steps today.

We are investing in Ontario’s future like no government has done before. And to achieve our goals, we are using a combination of traditional government financing and some innovative new approaches, including Alternative Financing and Procurement, or AFP.

AFP transactions are strictly governed by the Building a Better Tomorrow Framework, which outlines a made-in-Ontario approach to engaging the private sector in the financing and procurement of public infrastructure.

AFP is not about privatization.

There is a fundamental and profound difference between this government’s approach to hospital financing and that of previous governments.

We will not compromise the integrity of our public health care system. All Ontario hospitals, no matter how they are funded, will be publicly owned, controlled and accountable.

Providing the highest quality health sector infrastructure at the lowest possible cost demands a more principled, more innovative and more effective way of managing our public infrastructure.

With AFP as one of our new tools, we’ll be able to deliver enhanced public services and facilities – and deliver them better and smarter.

I’m proud of the fact that we are renewing our vital health infrastructure — not just here in Toronto, but in communities all over Ontario.

The AFP model is getting results by:

• Transferring appropriate risks to the private sector
• Reducing costs by eliminating duplication and red tape
• Conducting due diligence
• Staging projects in an orderly manner

Since Infrastructure Ontario was established in November 2005, we have issued RFPs for the Durham Consolidated Courthouse, North Bay Regional Health Centre, Sudbury Regional Hospital, Quinte Health Centre and Trillium Health Centre and St. Joseph Healthcare Centre in London. Over the next 12 months, there will be 13 RFPs released. Also, Infrastructure Ontario had its first groundbreaking in June for Hôpital Montfort in Ottawa and will have started construction on over 10 projects in the next 12 months. 

We are on the side of Ontario families who want the best health care.  In addition to revitalizing our health infrastructure, we have also:

• Expanded access to doctors, nurses and health care professionals with 3,062 new nursing positions and 150 family health teams, when fully operational, providing better care for more than 2.5 million Ontarians.
• Added 7 new and/or expanded MRI services, replaced 7 old machines with new ones and replaced 31 old CT scanners with 64 new ones.
• Reduced wait times by funding 31,000 additional surgical procedures: 24 per cent more MRI exams, seven per cent more cancer surgeries, 20 per cent more hip and knee replacements, 15 per cent more cataract surgeries and seven per cent more cardiac procedures.
• Added three new vaccines free-of-charge, for chicken pox, meningococcal disease and pneumococcal disease.  2.1 million vaccinations have saved families up to $600 per child.

The government’s investments are benefiting people across the province, strengthening our society, and enhancing our quality of life.

And by making Ontario a better place to live, we are building a better, brighter future.

Thank you.