Using the North Bay Regional Health Centre as his backdrop, NDP Candidate for Nipissing, Henri Giroux addressed the media about his party’s planned approach to meeting health care needs, while taking jabs at the Ontario Liberal and PC parties.
“The first thing that we said is we’re going to bring the funding formula back, the 5.3 per cent that the provincial Liberal government under Wynne cut for the past four or five years. That will alleviate some of the budget problems. Also, we’re going to increase the beds by 2,000 beds all across Ontario starting as soon as we come into power,” said Giroux.
“If we bring the funding up 5.3 percent we’re going to stop the cuts and laying off of the staff, and we’re going to hire 4,500 more staff all across Ontario so that we can make the hospitals work. Right now the hospitals are crumbling and people are getting their medicine in hallways. We hear it all across Ontario and we hear it here too in North Bay. We want to be able to stop that and the way you stop that is by having more staff to do the work.”
Joining Giroux was Michael Hurley President of CUPE Ontario Council of Hospital Unions. Hurley told the media that the North Bay hospital needs to see reinvestment in order to meet the health challenges it faces.
“This hospital, to meet the budget pressures it’s faced, has cut over the last five years, 380 staff positions and cut 60 beds and many programs. Its needs are complex and restoring those beds, restoring those programs, restoring those staff would be very important,” said Hurley.
“They’ve lost forensic psychiatrists. They’ve lost nurses, and they’ve lost support staff in all capacities here. So this is a hospital which is operating with a very thin staff compliment, among the lowest of any in the province. To put it into context, since the last election, the provincial Liberal government has cut this hospital’s budget by $23 million," said the President of CUPE Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.
“The Conservatives say they’re going to cut four cents on every dollar. When we take out the amount that’s spent on servicing the debt which they can’t really do anything about, then they would have to cut about $20 billion from programs over four years of which nine billion would have to come from health, of which about three billion would come from the hospitals,” said Hurley.
“We extrapolated based on the North Bay hospital’s proportion of total hospital spending, that that would be about a $44 million cut to its budget over a four year period. When you contrast that with the $23 million before, that resulted in the 380 staff cut and 60 bed cuts, if we cut almost twice as much, you’re going to see very, very significant staff and bed reductions. The challenge to the conservatives is to produce a program that shows some genuine investments.”
Giroux says the NDP’s plan to pay for its campaign promises is to increase taxes on the province’s more affluent and close tax loopholes for businesses.
“We think the wealthiest should start paying their fair share, so we’re going to charge the wealthiest with a percent if you make over $220,000 and two percent if you make $300,000, and right now there is a loophole where some of the corporates can have tax breaks just like a small business. We’re going to close that loophole so that they pay their fair share also, especially the big corporations.”
Giroux could not pinpoint how many beds would be reopened and how many staff would be rehired at the North Bay hospital if elected.
“I’m not going to comment on one specific hospital, except that we know that there’s going to be a lot of relief for this hospital here in North Bay because of the 5.3 percent funding, and also because we’re hiring staff. But I’m not going to make a quote on how many staff.”
The Nipissing candidate says the NDP will continue to operate deficits for the next few years.
“We will for our term, but it needs to be done so we can make the economy grow.”
