About half a dozen buses filled with 300 people make up Windsor's contingent at a massive rally at Queen's Park Tuesday over changes to the health care system.
Saying the threat is critical, thousands of health care workers and supporters hope, not only to convince the Ford government to change direction on plans to create a mega-agency to deliver health services but also to convince Ontario residents the move is wrong-headed.
President of the Windsor and District Labour Council Brian Hogan told BlackburnNews.com before the buses left Tuesday morning that proposed mergers of local health integration networks, cuts to hospital funding, and cuts to the Ontario Hospital Insurance Program, or OHIP, will do nothing to fix the healthcare system. He believes there the Ford government has another plan in mind; one they are not upfront about.
"He's setting it up for failure, so he opens the door to privatization," said Hogan.
Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Christine Elliott said the changes would put greater focus on the patient and streamline services making healthcare more effective and efficient.
David Musyj speaks to the media at Met Campus, January 28, 2016. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)
The proposal is not without local support. Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj welcomes the new Ontario Health Teams. Earlier this month, he told BlackburnNews.com the changes were badly needed.
"We all know what we have now is not working," he said. "I think it is going to be very interesting, very exciting and again from a patient's lens if we can make it easier for them, that's the goal here."
Since his election last spring, Premier Doug Ford has insisted his top priority is to eliminate Ontario's deficit, which now stands at over $11-billion. Many of the cuts his government has made so far have been explained as necessary to return the province to financial health, but Hogan does not buy it, and he points to other funding cuts including cuts to Legal Aid Ontario.
"A lot of this is penny wise, pound foolish," he said. "A dollar spent in legal aid will save six dollars. It makes sense. If you're poor or you're a new immigrant, and you don't get help from legal aid, you're going to get dragged into other social services, and you're going to be costing more."
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Hogan did not attend the rally in Toronto. He had planned to but instead stayed home to care for a sick parent.
He insisted the rally is just part of a greater effort to educate and mobilize the public.
"Going to Queen's Park is important," he explained. "But also, we've got to continue whether it's door-to-door dropping flyers at people's homes and saying this is actually what is happening -- and please, jump onboard."
