Sir: Doug Ford has spoken at length about being a friend to the middle class; he has stated that he will reduce taxes, and even reduce the cost of beer to “a buck a beer.”
Recently during a radio interview, he said he would pay off Ontario’s deficit in three years. This was in addition to the $6 billion he would save by finding “efficiencies” in public programs.
University of Western Ontario economist Mike Moffatt has calculated that total amount removed from Ontario’s coffers to be $22 billion.
This “plan” would be disastrous to Ontario’s public programs, such as health care. These fiscal cuts and tax breaks add up to more than Mike Harris did in his tenure as Premier of Ontario; he took $13 billion from public programs.
One visit to a physiotherapist would wipe out any tax break that a person would receive. Hospitals would close, nurses and support staff would be laid off, wait-times would lengthen, medical mistakes would increase and across the spectrum Ontario’s health-care system would worsen.
I know that Ontarians value our public health care, and other public programs, such as education and infrastructure. Our health-care system needs proper funding; hospitals need to be funded by a 5.3 per cent increase per year; Ontario needs 35,000 more LTC beds, and these should not be all “for-profit” institutions: our home care in Ontario needs to be overhauled, and taken away from “for-profit” businesses which are not delivering even adequate services to the people that depend on these services to remain at home.
Government exists to serve the people. Let’s make sure that the new government will serve all Ontarians fairly.
Shirley Roebuck
Chair
Chatham-Kent Health Coalition
