Andrea Horwath brought her ‘health care town hall’ roadshow to Sault Ste. Marie Wednesday night, where a packed room of supporters heard the Ontario NDP leader rally against the PC government’s approach to restructuring the province’s health system.
“Ontario’s world-class health care system is hanging by a thread, and the people of Sault Ste. Marie are feeling the strain,” she told the crowd gathered inside a Delta conference room.
Horwath says that ultimately, all roads lead to the eventual privatization of Ontario’s health care under Doug Ford.
“He’s cooked up a massive health care upheaval that will usher in unprecedented levels of privatization, turning our health care system into a cash cow for private, for-profit corporations - and his latest budget cuts to health care are severe,” she said. “They do not even keep up with the rate of inflation.”
Horwath highlighted $330 million in cuts to mental health and the reduction of 59 municipally funded paramedic and emergency services across the province to 10 consolidated services.
“I heard today, for the first time - and I haven’t had time to verify this, so I don’t know if this accurate information, but my understanding was that for the 10 paramedic agencies, there’ll be two for the entire north,” she said. “Now, can you imagine what that’s going to look like?”
“It’s not going to look good.”
The Ontario NDP leader says the ongoing restructuring of Ontario’s health care system is being done primarily for the benefit of corporations.
“As this government continues on its wrongheaded plan, more and more of our health dollars are going to be siphoned away from hospitals, from public services into the hands of private corporations, and so things will get worse, not better,” Horwath said.
– SooToday.com