Thank you for that very kind introduction. I am very pleased, and very excited to be back at North York General.

Over the course of the past 20 months, our government has devised and begun to implement a plan for health care that is based on three things we are promising to deliver. They are: Healthier Ontarians, shorter wait times, and improved access to doctors and nurses.

Central to that plan is continued support for our hospitals.

We are extremely fortunate in Ontario to have hospitals that are known far and wide for the first-class care they provide. They are a cornerstone of our health care system, and we have a responsibility to ensure that they are able to continue delivering the acute care for which they are so well-respected.

And we are doing exactly that.

I am very pleased to announce today that we are investing at least $1.75 billion more to operate our hospitals over the next 3 years. This year, we are adding $650 million dollars — more than half a billion — to operate our hospitals. That's an increase of 5.1 percent in operational funding over last year.

This added funding will mean that Ontario patients can continue to count on their hospitals to provide the very best in acute care in the year to come.

However, our plan for hospitals involves more than just increasing their funding.

As many of you know, last year we initiated a balanced budget process with hospitals, requiring them to balance their books by the end of March 2006.

For much too long, too many hospitals have incurred annual deficits in what appeared to be an unbreakable and dangerous cycle.

We are bringing this cycle to an end.

The Balanced Budget Process is working. To date, 89 of our 154 hospitals are on track to balance their budgets, and we are going to work with our remaining hospitals to get them out of deficit, and on a path to stable financial health.

And then we're going to help them stay there.

Because what is truly historic about this year's funding announcement is that is a multi-year funding announcement.

Hospital boards have been saying for years that they need more predictable multi-year funding.

We are the first government to come through with precisely that. We promised it. And today we are delivering it.

For the first time ever, every hospital will know how much funding they are getting for the coming three years instead of just one.

This will provide them with exactly the kind of stability they say they need. It will allow them to plan for the future instead of being taken by surprise by it.

It will allow them to plan for the needs of their patients while properly managing their finances, which will enable them to keep their books balanced.

Ultimately that means better access to better care for Ontarians.

This year for the first time we can tell each Ontario hospital the operating funding they will receive. The funding for next year and the year after that does not include additional dollars for wait times and some priority programs that will be announced in the next fiscal year for those hospitals that deliver the expected results.

Overall, Ontario hospitals will receive $12.27 billion this year, at least $12.6 billion in 2006/2007 and $13.1 billion in 2007/2008.

The other thing we have done this year is improved the process by which we determine how much funding each hospital should receive.

Old funding approaches were not fair to all hospitals because they did not adequately recognize hospitals' unique circumstances and cost pressures, and growth in demand for their services.

After an extensive collaboration with hospitals, we developed a funding formula that addresses all those concerns. This year's funding decisions were informed by the specific needs and different sizes of our hospitals. They also took into account how efficient individual hospitals have been, and how quickly demand for services has grown in the past year.

It is a much better, much fairer system, and another way in which we are responding to the very reasonable concerns that have been raised by hospitals.

Finally, we are continuing to help our hospitals by making unprecedented investments in community-based care — from home care to community mental health services; from long-term care to Family Health Teams.

These investments are going to greatly reduce the pressure on our hospitals, freeing them up to provide the kind of acute care only they can. It will also improve people's access to the quality health care when they need it, and where they need it — closer to home.

Our government shares a vision with the people of Ontario of a health care system that helps keep Ontarians healthier, gets them good care when they are sick, and will be there for their children and grandchildren.

By restoring our hospitals to financial health, we are helping make that vision a reality.

Thank you.