CAPITAL FUNDING

Mr Ernie Hardeman (Oxford): My question is to the Acting Premier. Yesterday, I stood in the House and asked your Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal why the Woodstock General Hospital was still waiting for approval to go to tender on their new hospital, after $12 million had already been spent on the project and everything is ready to go.

Now I'd like to ask you why the Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital has been waiting for capital approval to make renovations to the facilities for over a year. The hospital has approval from the Ministry of Health to build a satellite dialysis unit in its facility. The community has raised all the money needed to provide the equipment -- well over $700,000. Yet the hospital can't make the renovations to the rooms because they haven't heard from the government.

These projects have all met the necessary requirements and still don't have the final approval. I hope this is not your government discriminating against my constituents because of my political affiliation.

Hon Dwight Duncan (Minister of Energy, Government House Leader): The Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal.

Hon David Caplan (Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal): I understand why the member would want to frame his question in those terms, but I can assure him that's not the case.

Previous to our government assuming office, his government took on Michael Decter to do a health care capital review for both the health ministry and, at the time, the SuperBuild secretariat. The problem was that his government, unfortunately, had authorized so many of these projects without any dollars attached that there was no way they could ever be attended to.

Of course, as Mr Decter has advised -- and we have released the report publicly; it is available to this member, as it is to any member of Ontario's public -- there is a need to review the health care capital funding model because, unfortunately, of the infrastructure deficit that his government and, I would say quite honestly, the previous government have left. We are working at cleaning up the mess that you've left us, and we will be getting to it as quickly as we as we possibly can.