QUEEN’S PARK – This week, Ontario Liberals met with community leaders at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference, and heard firsthand how the provincial government is failing on healthcare.
“Doug Ford’s deliberate plan to underfund our hospitals and expand private healthcare is wreaking havoc on our rural communities,” said Bonnie Crombie, Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. “Hospitals are running deficits, hundreds of emergency departments in rural Ontario have been forced to shut their doors, and healthcare workers are leaving their jobs because of the strain they are under as a result of these cuts to care.”
“Doug Ford’s indifference to the needs of real people in Ontario is actively making rural healthcare worse,” said Dr. Adil Shamji. “Under the Conservatives, Ontario has moved from crisis to crisis, and the provincial government has consistently failed to act when Ontarians are most in need of help. Nowhere is this more true than in our rural communities — especially as it relates to healthcare.”
Today, Ontario Liberals are joining our municipalities to demand the Ford Conservatives take urgent action to support healthcare in rural Ontario. Doug Ford must:
- Respond to all of the recommendations in the ROMA report on rural healthcare and the Auditor General’s report on Hospitals in Northern Ontario.
- Provide rural municipalities with a seat at the table so they have an active say in the province’s decisions on healthcare.
- Regulate and rein in temporary for-profit staffing agencies.
- Provide staffing supports in Northern Ontario for primary care, long-term care and home care.