Tag Archives: Waterloo Region Health Coalition

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

CKMS News – 2023-07-04 – Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition discusses protecting Ontario’s public healthcare from privatization

Leave a comment

Listen: CKMS News – 2023-07-04 – Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition discusses Protecting Ontario’s public healthcare from privatization


By: dan kellar

As the efforts by the Ontario government to privatize public health care in Ontario accelerate, protests by health care workers and local residents have taken place across the province.  On June 26th over 200 people demonstrated in front of St. Mary’s hospital in Kitchener to tell the government “Healthcare is a Human Right, Hands off our Hospitals!”.

Attending the event were representatives from the Waterloo Region Health Coalition and today’s show features an interview with Jim Stewart, the chair of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition, a node in the Ontario Health Coalition whose goal is to defend public health care against privatization.

In the interview Stewart speaks on Doug Ford’s and the conservative government’s continuing privatization agenda, the work the Waterloo Region Health Coalition is undertaking and the growing movement within the healthcare system, and across the public sphere, that is organizing to support health care workers and protect public healthcare in Ontario.

For more information on the Waterloo Region Health Coalition, visit waterloohealthcoalition.org.

 


This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, Heritage Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.

Check out the archived versions of this program on radiowaterloo.ca/news, and listen to all the LJI content at canada-info.ca.

If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca

CKMS Community Connections, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS Community Connections for 22 May 2023 with Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition

Leave a comment

Show Notes

(a min with a beard and moustache wearing a brown shirt sits at a microphone)
Jim Stewart

Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition returns to CKMS Community Connections to talk about the latest developments in Doug Ford’s privatization of the public healthcare system in Ontario, and tells us of the referendum to stop the privatization of public hospitals to for-profit hospitals and clinics. Polling stations are open on Friday and Saturday, 26 and 27 May 2023 at locations throughout Waterloo Region, and Ontario. You can vote online at https://publichospitalvote.ca/.

But to start, Bob reminds listeners that the deadline for signing Government of Canada petition E-4268 is Friday 26 May 2023. This petition requests parliament to extend to transgender and nonbinary people the right to claim asylum in Canada by reason of eliminationist laws in their home countries. It’s set to be one of the most-signed petitions in Canadian history, sign now before it closes!

The interview starts at 3m28s.

Waterloo Region Health Coalition:

Ontario Health Coalition:

The Waterloo Region Health Coalition previously on Radio Waterloo:

Upcoming Events

Podcast

Download: ckms-community-connections-2023-05-22-episode127-Jim-Stewart-of-the-Waterloo-Region-Health-Coalition.mp3 (53 MB, 57m20s, episode 127)

Index

Time Title Album Artist
0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc CKMS Sunflower logo (yellow petals surrounding a black centre with white wavies all on a teal background)
CKMS Community Connections 		Steve Todd
0m30s Bob recognizes Victoria Day, with some ideas for changing the focus away from Queen Victoria. And he gives a reminder that the Friday 26 May 2023 is the deadline for signing Government of Canada petition E-4268, To extend to transgender and nonbinary people the right to claim asylum in Canada by reason of eliminationist laws in their home countries.
2m10s Eve (a purple circular object, possibly a surveillance camera)
Generichiphopfouldr 		Stunt Double
3m09s Introducing Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition . Jim talks about the province-wide citizens’ led referendum on the privatization of our core hospital services. Leaking information about privatization to the press. Documenting the discrepancies between what the Progressive Conservative Pary of Ontario promised during the election in June of 2022 with what they said eight weeks later.
10m12s Jim tells us about the exisiting capacity of our public hospital system. There are enough operating rooms and time available that we don’t need for-profit health care. The public health capacity exists, but the funding is lacking. Jim quotes some figures of mis-spent budgets and shortfalls from lack of budgeting in the billions of dollars.
13m45s Talking about Bill 60, now the law as Your Health Act, 2023. There are secrecy regulations built in since public health care funding is re-directed to for-profit corporations, there is no longer fiscal accountability and transparency. We don’t have a lot of options to hold the government accountable since the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario holds the majority of seats in the Legislature. As a result, they completely ignored the opposition parties when the opposition made recommendations to modify Bill 60. When WRHC visits PCO MPPs they just give the usual talking points.
19m00s A quick digression about the number of votes, 17.8% of eligible voters, that elected a majority of seats for the Progressive Conservatives. A strong argument for proportional representation!
20m05s Jim tells us about court cases dealing with double-billing in British Columbia. The British Columbia government disallowed double-billing, but it was appealed, and appealed to the Supreme Court, who refused to hear the case. But the Ontario government has not learned any lessons from that. Jim gives more examples of the higher bills from for-profit health clinics, which are charging for unnecessary procedures that don’t improve health outcomes. You can avoid extra billing by asking “Is this medically necessary?” and then refusing treatments which aren’t necessary. But how are non-medical citizens supposed to know? Jim refers to studies that show that for-profit health care is inferior to public health care, eg. for-profit clinics using less-skilled staff to save money (and maximize profits). Bob relates the disaster in the Long-Term Care homes, where at the start of Covid for-profit homes had far greater rates of death among residents than the publicly-funded homes.
28m02s Jim tells us about the replacement of Ministry of Health oversight with for-profit providers overseeing for-profit clinics. This is a huge conflict of interest, but now allowed under the Your Health Act. The Act has the wording that health care can be provided by a medical professional or “another prescribed person”, which might be someone without a medical degree. That cheapens the cost of labour , and increases profits.
29m50s There are now 1037 health care lobbyists at Queen’s Park. Right-wing think tanks like the Fraser Institute are recommending market-driven health care. This is approaching health care as provided in the United States. The people of the US are opposed to this type of for-profit health care, but the politicians are in favour. What’s in it for the politicians? They’re influenced by repetition, arguments for privatization presented in a compelling way.
31m53s Jim gets into some specifics of the costs of proving cataract surgery, and hip and knee replacements, which are all listed in the privatization regulations. There are the procedural fees, which in for-profit clinics are 50% higher than in hospitals, and facility fees can be double in for-profit clinics compared to publicly funded hospitals. The additional fees just for cataract surgeries amount to $30.7 million dollars. Hip and knee replacement surgeries, which are much more complex and dangerous than cataract surgeries, are responsible for an additional $600 million dollars over public health care. But we’ll never know the true costs, because the freedom of information acts don’t apply to private clinics.
37m44 Oh My CxViolet & The New People | Oh My (a cityscape showing cars on a road with the headlights blurred by raindrops on the lens)
(single) 		CxViolet and the New People
40m34s Jim tells us of the plan: resist this by holding a citizens-led referendum this coming Friday and Saturday. Jim lists some of the locations for polling stations around Waterloo Region. But the referendum is province-wide, from Thunder Bay to Niagara Falls. WRHC is a volunteer organization and can use help to staff the polling booths. But more importantly, they need your vote. Jim reads the ballot question: Do you want our public hospital services to be privatized to for-profit hospitals and clinics? Yes or No. Jim gives a great shout-out to the churches and organizations that are providing assistance in setting up polling stations. There’s a map at https://publichospitalvote.ca/find-voting-station. It’s taken over a month to get this organized, and small army of volunteers.
45m44s Talking about the Waterloo Region Health Coalition: About 50 core members, but membership comes and goes. All people who are constantly fighting for public health care and challenging the decisions made by the Ford administration. Jim re-iterates that public health care costs us less. Ontario is dead last for per-capita funding, and dead last for the number hospital beds per capita, dead last for the number of nurses per capita. Mr. Ford has been in power for five years, this is his responsibility. We can do as we did with Covid, provide additional funding to correct this situation. The money is there.
49m13s Talking about petitions to the provincial government: 20,000 signatures on a petition is a lot; a million votes in the referendum is even more significant. Jim’s literature is available on the Ontario Health Coalition website. Jim lists the supporting organizations, eg. the Labour Council, the Council of Canadians, Ontario Nurses Association, Unifor, the major union groups, the Canadian Federation of University Women, Retired Teachers of Ontario. Canadians really cherish their health care; Tommy Douglas, who was responsible for universal health care in Canada was voted The Greatest Canadian (but Bob voted for Stompin’ Tom, and Jim voted for Terry Fox).
52m13s Even though these grass-roots groups support this referendum, it is not an Elections Ontario referendum. What happens when OHC presents this to the government of Ontario? Jim thinks the government will be embarrassed. Jim hopes the media will pick this up. People across the Region who were unaware of what was happening will have an opportunity to voice their displeasure. Bob fears the government will just ignore the referendum altogether.
53m50s Jim covers some of the financial costs of privatized, for-profit health care. 45% of all Americans typically have a medical debt load of $10,000; 60% of all bankruptcies in America are the result of health care costs. We’re starting to see medical debt in Ontario now. Jim is convinced Canadians don’t want that. Bob recaps the date and locations of the referendum, and says “Go out and vote!” Jim says that this your time to stand up for the public health care system. There is no other moment that is as important as this referendum on Friday and Saturday. Help the WRHC send a message to Mr. Ford.
56m15s Bob thanks Jim Stewart for coming in yet again, and gives the end credits.

CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.

Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at ccc@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.

CKMS logo with wavies coming out the sidesSubscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!

CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community ConnectionsSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!

Bonus Video

YouTube: CKMS Community Connections for Monday 22 May 2023

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2023 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.

CKMS Community Connections, Shows

CKMS Community Connections for 20 February 2023 with Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition

2 Comments

Show Notes

Jim Stewart in 2022

Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition joins Bob Jonkman by phone to discuss the state of public health in Ontario, and to talk about the upcoming pickets in support of the Ontario Nurses’ Association this Thursday, 23 February 2023 at St. Mary’s Hospital and Grand River Hospital.

Waterloo Region Health Coalition:

Ontario Health Coalition:

The Waterloo Region Health Coalition previously on Radio Waterloo:

Upcoming Events

The Waterloo Region Health Coalition has confirmed that Thursday’s pickets are on, regardless of weather.

Better Staffing Care Wages | ONA Ontario Nurses' Association (pink and white lettering on a black background. "Better" is tilted on its side so it's an adjective for all three of "Staffing", "Care", "Wages")

  • Picket at St. Mary’s Hospital
    • When: Thursday 23 February 2023, One Hour commencing at 11:00am until Noon
    • Where: St Mary’s General Hospital
    • Location: 911 Queen’s Boulevard, Kitchener Map 1
    • Contact: Jennifer Cepukus, ONA Local 139 Coordinator/Bargaining Unit President local139@ona.org
  • Picket at Grand River Hospital
    • When: Thursday 23 February 2023, One Hour commencing at 12:30pm until 1:30pm
    • Where: Grand River General Hospital
    • Location: 835 King Street West, Kitchener Map 2
    • Contact: Deanna Dowsett, ONA Local 55 Coordinator/Bargaining Unit President local055@ona.org
    •  or: Stephanie Hamill, ONA Local 55 Vice President l55vpsmgh@ona.org

More information on pickets across Ontario: https://www.ona.org/bettercare/feb23/

Podcast

Download: ckms-community-connections-2023-02-20-episode114.mp3 (49.2 MB, 51m09s, episode 114)

Index

All songs today are new releases from (B&W solarized, elongated, wiggly photo of four men)Living Room for Small.

Time Title
0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc Steve Todd
0m59s what’s my issue (idk) (Living Room for Small)
4m29s Welcoming Jim Stewart back to the studio. Jim explains the crisis in Ontario health care. Funding for the pandemic came from the Federal government ($6.5 billion for all of Canada by March 2022, according to a government press release).
6m48s Premier Doug Ford has capitalized on the backlog in surgeries as a result of the pandemic, but surgical backlogs are happening globally. Taking advantage of Ontario’s backlog to begin privatization is “absolutely despicable”. Nurses in New York are striking over their work conditions, we have the same conditions in Ontario. Nurses in Ontario aren’t on strike yet, but there will be pickets by nurses in front of hospitals across Ontario, including St. Mary’s and Grand River hospitals in Kitchener.
9m52s Doug Ford’s do-nothing strategies has resulted in Ontario being in last place for per-capita health care funding, last in numbers of beds per-capita, and dead last in the number of nurses per-capita. The Health Coalitions would like to see Ontario get back to an average rating, but the current privatization strategy will only make it worse. The right-wing mantra is to create a crisis, then claim that privatization is the only solution. But it is well known that privatization only makes these metrics worse. The Ontario government has been underfunding health care by $900 million, according to finance critic Catherine Fife, NDP MPP for Waterloo. And the plan in the new budget is to reduce health care spending by 2024 even more, by $5 billion dollars, according to Liberal health critic Dr. Adil Shamji. It is unlikely that we will ever be able to come back to a public health care system. At the same time, Doug Ford has been transferring funds from our public hospitals to independent health care facilities, to move 50% of our surgeries to for-profit, private clinics. And Doug Ford has introduced Bill 124 to reduce the wages of nurses and other medical professionals, resulting in nurses leaving our public hospitals, and making recuitment for new nurses dreadful. We have massive vacancies in nursing staffing levels. The crisis Doug Ford has created is a political decision, to proceed with privatization of the public health care system. There are over 1137 pro-privatization health care lobbyists at Queen’s Park. The WRHC thinks privatization is a disaster for public health care, a fatal blow for our hospitals, especially small and medium hospitals.
16m18s Privatization has been happening for several years with diagnostic imaging and blood tests, now transferred to cataract surgeries and other opthalmic procedures. Private clinics will only take the easiest, most profitable cases. OHIP will pay $610 per cataract, but only $400 when done in a public hospital. In addition there are facility fees for maintenance and administration in private clinics. In 2014 OHIP paid $198 million in procedural fees, but $434 million for facility fees. OHIP is paying this extra money for building and administering private clinics. This is not in the public interest, since we have the surgical capacity in our existing hospitals.
20m01s Private clinics take the easy surgeries at greater expense, so our underfunded and understaffed public hospitals will need to deal with the more complex surgeries. Jim again calls this despicable. There are 24,000 vacancies for health care professionals, 140 in Waterloo Region alone. Then the call drops, and Bob introduces the next song.
22m11s the death of u (Living Room for Small)
26m48s Jim was talking about the band Kroka, and Bob suggests they come in to the studio for a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance!
27m28s Are we losing the health care battle? We have the capability of stopping privatization. Jim explains the structure of the Ontario Health Coalition and the Waterloo Region Health Coalition, non-partisan organizations. Everyone Jim knows supports the public health care system, which is why Jim is so disturbed by the announcements to privatize. The former Ontario minister of health, Christine Elliott, made an announcement in February 2-2022 that they would privatize health care. This was an existential threat to public health care. Jim was interviewed by The Record about this announcement, but when The Record contacted the Ontario ministry of health for a response they said what the WRHC was saying was categorically false, although Jim had a recording of Christine Elliott’s announcement. The OHC and WRHC launched a campaign with lawn signs and radio spots. All during the election the Ontario PC Party denied any plans to privatize. They offered no campaign platform and didn’t show up for all-candidate meetings. But two months after the election they announced 50% privatization again. Jim and the health coalitions are finding out from Ontarians whether the government has a mandate to privatize.
34m48s There are other organizations that care about public health care. We have to take some ownership; if Ontario decides to privatize health care it will happen across the country. We’ll have American style medical debt and medical bankrupcy. Some 150 million Americans have at least $10,000USD of medical debt; 50% of all American bankrupcies are due to medical debt.
36m27s What’s the trend for privatization in the rest of the world? No, it’s not happening globally. The OECD countries all have publicly funded systems. There are some examples of alternative systems, we could consider adopting some of those strategies. There are some countries that have some privatization, but it’s difficult to compare those systems to ours; Jim describes the French system, which includes pharmaceuticals, dental, and eye care. There may be private insurace for a private room, but that’s the ancillary care, not the primary health care. Germany has private health care only for the very rich, but the overwhelming majority of Germans are covered by their national health care. By contrast, in Ontario all our doctors have private practices, all our laboratory services are private, much of our medical imaging is privatized, about 70% of our long-term care is privatized, and home care is almost 100% privatized. All we have left is our public hospitals. And now 50% of surgeries are to be privatized. We are working against the global trend, we need to think about re-establishing public health care system we believe should be there.
40m29s Would there be some advantage to having a national health care system instead of a provincial one? Constitutionally we have the Canada Health Act with requires the provinces to administer health care in a public fashion, but it doesn’t force provinces to deliver health care in any meaningful way with a public methodology. In Alberta their private health care delivery hasn’t work; surgical wait lists grew. But it has been a lucrative business. The proposed Ontario privatization will still be paid through OHIP, so surgeries will be paid at a premium rate; surgeons can make an extra $200 by performing surgery in their private clinics. And who is deliver the care now? Where do the nurses, medical technologists, and physicians come from? They come from the public system, there are only a limited pool of human resources. And so the public system will have enormously long wait lists for surgeries and other procedures. But a fully public health care system has better outcomes at lower costs. This can be seen between the partly private NHS system in England compared to the public NHS in Scotland. NHS in England is barely surviving, will never go back to a public system, and that’s Jim’s big fear for Ontario.
45m30s What are the Ontario and Waterloo Region Health Coalitions doing? They’re lobbying the government directly, and talk to the media, and support local initiatives such as the ONA picket lines Thursday 23 February 2023. Come out and tell the media we are not supportive of privatizing our public health care system; we want the reverse, a fully funded public health care system, to grow it and strengthen it and finance it properly with the right kind of human resources and financial resources. Join the Waterloo Region Health Coalition which is made of concerned citizens who want to take action. The best way to join is through their Facebook website or send Jim an e-mail at waterlooregionhealthcoalition@gmail.com. Also the OHC website, https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/. WRHC has regular monthly meetings on Zoom, Jim hopes to go back to in-person meetings soon. There are also individual memberships to the OHC, join up and be a Health Care Defender. They’re looking for people to report on fees being charged for surgeries &c. Pickets at the hospitals are right at the main entrance, an hour at each hospital, just show up.
50m09s End credits.

CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.

Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.

CKMS logo with wavies coming out the sidesSubscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!

CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community ConnectionsSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!

Bonus Video

YouTube: CKMS Community Connections for Monday, 20 February 2023

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2023 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.

CKMS Community Connections, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS Community Connections for 14 March 2022 with Barbara Schumacher and Jim Stewart of WRHC

1 Comment

Show Notes

Screencap of a web conference with Barbara Schumacher (top) and Jim Stewart (bottom)
Barbara Schumacher and Jim Stewart of WRHC

Barbara Schumacher and Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition join Bob Jonkman on a web conference to talk about the Ontario government’s creeping advances to privatized health care, the diminishing level of health care in Ontario compared to other provinces, ideas to improve public health care, the effects of having private hospitals, and an announcement of the upcoming Waterloo Region Health care Privatization Summit.

We had some technical difficulties during the live broadcast, but the podcast cleaned up nicely, although the web conference created some dropout in the audio at some points.

The interview starts at 5m08s.

Online:


Ontario Health Coalition | Protecting public healthcare for all

See also:

Upcoming Events

Previous shows with WRHC

Podcast

Download: ckms-community-connections-2022-03-14-episode093.mp3 (38.9 MB, 40m27s, episode 093)

Index

Time Title Album Artist
0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc and show introduction by Bob Jonkman CKMS Sunflower logo (yellow petals surrounding a black centre with white wavies all on a teal background)
CKMS Community Connections		 Steve Todd
1m07s Boy Beast & Fish | The Day Is Gone (two boys in silhouette playing on a grassy field)
The Day Is Gone		 Beast & Fish
5m08s Introductions: Barbara Schumacher is a retired physician and the former Medical Director of the University of Waterloo Health Service; Jim Stewart is the chair of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition. WRHC is a chapter of the Ontario Health Coalition, a non-partisan public watchdog for health care. Provincial legislation is introducing privatization of health care by stealth; result of insufficient funding for the health care system. Canadian Doctors for Medicare has done studies of the administration of private health care: Canadian public health has half the administrative cost of private health care.
13m37s Ontario is dead last among the provinces in funding public health care: fewest hospital beds, fewest nurses, and funding hospitals at the lowest rate of any province. We need to look for ways to invest in public health, not take funds out and drive them into profit-driven “Independent Health Facilities”. Federal health care transfer payments have dropped from 50% to 20%. There is a massive reduction in provincial health care spending. Federal government transfer payments are intended to administer a provincial health care system, not deliver health care. In 2019 the Ontario People’s Health Care Act created a super agency with powers to restructure the public health care system, now there is a patchwork across the province, different in Waterloo Region from Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Sudbury.
17m14s How to make things better? Focus on public health care, we paid for this over decades, why throw it out? Comparing England, where NHS privatized, but the private company went bankrupt and left. How sustainable are private companies for delivering health care. But Scotland’s NHS rejected privatization and focused on public infrastructure and create a strategy for sustainability for the NHS in Scotland. As a result, Scotland is a world leader in reducing wait times, reduction of hospital acquired infections, and reducing re-admission rates. They used four strategies: 1) Redesign and transform capacity on population-based requirements; 2) Information (linked electronic health records); 3) Planning strategy, including continuous quality improvement; 4) Peformance Management Strategy, holding regional health units accountable when they don’t reach targets. Canadian Doctors for Medicare has a lot of studies on how our Canadian health care system can be reformed. Private health care is not the only alternative. Private clinics primarily focus on profit, that’s what they’re designed to do.
25m00s On 1 February 2022 the Ontario Health Minister, Christine Elliot, gave a press conference where she said “Let independent health facilities create private hospitals.” This is an alarming announcement, it speaks to the complete coring out of our public hospitals, having them recall diagnostic and surgical services, to be reconstituted in private clinics. In private hospitals the simple procedures and uncomplicated patients get drawn in the private system, then the public hospitals are left with the more expensive cases requiring more intense professional care, so public hospitals have expenses that far exceed those of private hospitals. Private hospitals also pull professional expertise out of the public system, but since there will be no additional doctors it leaves public hospitals with fewer resources. Private hospitals only benefit people who can afford it; poor people will go to underfunded, understaffed public hospitals. Public hospitals have a flat-fee system to compensate doctors; all neurologists or all obstetricians are paid the same. In a private system there can be a differential fee scale according to expertise. The public system doesn’t reinforce holding on to quality, we see physicians with specialized skills move to the US, draining the public care system. But some Canadian physicians find the private system in the US burdensome (health insurance costs, tracking down overdue payments, take orders from health insurance corporations) so their ability to deliver high-quality health care is diminished significantly, and they return to Canada.
30m33s WRHC is trying to warn the Region of Waterloo what is happening with privatization. They are holding an emergency summit on Tuesday, 5 April 2022, at 7:00pm register with Zoom. Speakers include Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition. Find out what’s happening so people can make a decision a the voting booth in June.
31m48s Discussing the politics of health care. WRHC is non-partisan, but there’s no need to have a political affiliation, almost all parties support the public health care system. It’s not a political position, it’s a social position. Discussing the scope of health care delivery: Eye care, hearing care, dental care, pharmacare, and mental health care. “Health care above the neck.” Pharmacare on a large scale gets better competitive pricing, but the strong Pharma lobby is holding us back.
36m16s Jim Stewart gives the WRHC contact info and Bob gives the credits as Extended Heatwarning plays out to the end of the podcast. Ponysapien (clouds over water, coloured with a spectrum of colours)
Ponysapien		 Ponysapien

CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs on Friday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.

Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.

CKMS logo with wavies coming out the sidesSubscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!

CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community ConnectionsSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!

Bonus Footage

YouTube: CKMS Community Connections for 14 March 2022

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2022 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.

CKMS Community Connections, Shows

CKMS Community Connections for 9 November 2020 with Jim Stewart and Riani de Wet of Waterloo Region Health Coalition

3 Comments

Show Notes

Jim Stewart and Riani de Wet at the microphone
Jim Stewart and Riani de Wet in May 2019

Jim Stewart and Riani de Wet of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition return to CKMS Community Connections to talk about the new legislation for Long Term Care facilities and privatization of health care.

Previous appearance on CCC: 27 May 2019.

The interview starts at 3m23s.

Online:


Ontario Health Coalition | Protecting public healthcare for all

See also:

Additional Notes from WRHC:

November 2, 2020 

For Immediate Release Attn: Assignment Editor 

Ford’s 4-hour long-term care announcement too late: 

Need commitment to deal with staffing crisis now 

Toronto – While the Ontario Health Coalition is happy that the Ford government has finally adopted the 4-hour  minimum care standard as policy, the timeline that they have given is so long that it is meaningless for the people  who are suffering and dying in long-term care now, warns the Coalition. The Coalition has been working to win a  minimum care standard in long-term care for more than 20 years, since the Harris government removed the existing  care standard in the late 1990s. For at least 15 years this has been a priority issue and the Health Coalition has held  countless events and activities to pressure consecutive governments to bring it in. Today the Ford government  announced that it has adopted the 4-hour target but will not commit to implementing it until 2024/25, four years  and a provincial election away. 

“Too much of the government’s response to date has been focused on PR at the expense of concrete measures, said  Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition. “There is much more that the Ford government could do right now to save lives and get care levels up, so announcing a care standard four years from now is just not  good enough.” 

“Ontarians need to know what concrete recruitment and training is going to happen right now to get staff into the  homes and to move us toward the four-hour minimum average care level as quickly as possible,” Ms. Mehra went on  to say. 

For example: 

  • 4 months ago, at the beginning of June, Quebec’s government launched a recruitment drive backed by the  full power of government and funded fully to get 10,000 PSW-equivalent workers, paid them $21 per hour  for training, increased wages to $26 an hour and is deploying this small army of workers into the homes. 
  • British Columbia’s government took action 6 months ago to provide full time work and an increased wage of  $21.75 per hour for PSWs in long-term care to stabilize the workforce. 
  • In contrast, Ontario’s government did nothing substantial in the summer months when there was a lull in  COVID-19 cases and should have been planning for the fall. Finally in September, they announced funding  and training for 2000 PSWs along with a series of piecemeal funding and training; no big recruitment drive,  no full time work, no improvement in wages and working conditions that would attract people to this work.  They also renewed the pandemic pay until March, but at $1 per hour less than it was in the summer.

“We are happy that the minimum care standard is finally, belatedly, adopted as policy but we cannot allow this to be  the way that this government tries to shut down the legitimate criticism about their inadequate response. We  desperately need staff in the homes now. It is in this government’s power to do more. Why will they not do it?”  concluded Ms. Mehra.

15 Gervais Drive, Suite 201, Toronto, Ontario M3C 1Y8 Tel: 416-441-2502 Email: ohc@sympatico.ca Web: www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca 

November 4, 2020 

Attn: Assignment Editor For Immediate Release 

Almost Four Dozen People Who Applied to Testify Before the  

Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on Bill 218 Limiting Legal Liability  for COVID-19 Harms for Long-Term Care Homes and Others, 

Cut Out of the Hearings Today 

Toronto – Increasingly frustrated with the lack of accountability for the response to COVID-19 in Ontario’s long-term  care homes, Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra called today’s revelation that dozens of people who applied  for standing in today’s legislative hearings on Bill 218 which limits legal liability for the home operators, “Injustice  heaped upon injustice,” for the families of those who have died.  

A number of family members and their lawyers were among those cut from the hearings, as the Ford government has  limited the hearings to one part-day meaning that there are only 15 spaces for people to be heard. The government  gave almost no notice for the hearings, which are being held this afternoon, so families spent hours in the past two  days reliving the horrors of the last days of their loved ones lives while trying to write up their presentations, only to  find that they will not be heard, Ms. Mehra reported. “It is heartbreaking, just so wrong,” she said. 

Fifty-eight people applied for standing and only 15 are being heard. The practice of severely limiting public hearings  has reached unprecedented levels under the Ford government which has also changed the rules of the Legislature to  enable themselves to pass bills with unprecedented speed. 

“There is no reason that the government cannot extend the hearings to one more day to hear from people who have  been directly impacted in the most devastating of ways,” she said. “We are calling on the government to extend the  hearings and give the families the ability to have input on this legislation that directly impacts their attempt to seek  justice.” 

Bill 218 raises the legal bar for those suing for COVID-19 harms to gross negligence from simple negligence. It  redefines “good faith effort” which usually means a reasonable and competent effort to say that long-term care and  retirement homes, among others, just had to make an “honest effort, whether reasonable or not”, thereby making it  both harder to sue and easier to defend. It makes these measures retroactive to March 17, 2020, the week that  COVID-19 began to spread in long-term care homes, impacting more than two dozen class action and legal suits that  are already underway against for-profit long-term care homes that were responsible for more than half of the COVID 19 deaths in Ontario’s homes in the first wave of the pandemic, a trend that is shaping up to be the same or worse in  the second wave, reported the Coalition. 

The Health Coalition, which opposes these measures for long-term care and retirement homes, will testify before the  Standing Committee on Justice Policy at 1 p.m. today and will call on the committee to extend the hearings.

15 Gervais Drive, Suite 201, Toronto, Ontario M3C 1Y8 Tel: 416-441-2502 Email: ohc@sympatico.ca Web: www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca 

Podcast

Download: ckms-community-connections-2020-11-09-episode067.mp3 (56.4 MB , 58m44s, episode 067)

Podcast Index

Time Title Artist Album
0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc Steve Todd CKMS Community Connections
0m25s Currency Kevin California (a Newton's Cradle with a heart where the second ball should be)Timeless
3m23s Bob Jonkman and Jim Stewart talk about the state of the Covid pandemic in Ontario, and are joined by Riani de Wet to discuss long term care legislation.
58m01s Ridin’ With A Thief
while Bob gives the end credits.		 Dan Walsh Dan Walsh | Virtuoso (Dan Walsh playing guitar)Virtuoso

CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs on Saturday from Noon to 1:00pm.

Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.

CKMS logo with wavies coming out the sidesSubscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!

CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community Connections | Mondays 10 am - 12 NoonSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!

Bonus Footage

YouTube: CKMS Community Connections for 9 November 2020

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2020 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and deriviatives works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.

CKMS Community Connections, Shows

CKMS Community Connections for 27 May 2019 with Cait Glasson, Tim Louis, Riani de Wet and Jim Stewart

5 Comments

On the way into the Radio Waterloo studio I dropped into the Spectrum Community Space to see if someone would like to talk about the tri-Pride festival. Cait Glasson was there, and KW jazz musician Tim Louis was too! They both joined us in the first hour, and in the second hour we spoke with Riani de Wet and Jim Stewart from the Waterloo Region Health Coalition.

Show Notes

Cait Glasson at the microphone
Cait Glasson

Cait Glasson

The interview with Cait starts at 05m25s.

 

Tim Louis at the microphone
Tim Louis

Tim Louis

Tim Louis joins us at 26m23s.

  • Terry Fox: On The Road is a CD released by the Wilmot Terry Fox Run (WTFR) to raise funds for the Terry Fox Foundation for cancer research. Information about the CD is available from http://wilmotterryfox.ca/ontheroad. Please contact the Wilmot Terry Fox Run for details or to order a CD. Mail order is not available, but the WTFR will deliver orders in person within Wilmot. Nigel Gordijk (Wilmot Terry Fox Run Co-organizer) can be reached at wilmotterryfoxrun@gmail.com and +1‑519‑569‑9551.

  • Concert Schedule

    • Sunday, 9 June 2019 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm
      Prelude Picnic & All That Jazz
      at “From the Potting Shed”, 11261 Dundas Street South, Cambridge
    • Wednesday, 10 July 2019 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm
      Rockin’ it at Rockway
      Rockway community centre Kitchener
    • Friday, 19 July 2019 at 7:30pm
      Waterloo Jazz Festival
      Uptown Waterloo, Ontario
    • Sunday, 21 July 2019 at 7:00pm
      Rockway Gardens
      Kitchener
    • Saturday, 27 July 2019 from 11:00am to 1:30pm
      Terry Fox Concert
      St George’s Anglican Church, 3 Byron St, Wilmot
    • Thursday, 15 August 2019 at 7:00pm
      Castle Kilbride
      Wilmot

 

Jim Stewart and Riani de Wet at the microphone
Jim Stewart and Riani de Wet

Riani de Wet and Jim Stewart

The interview with Riani de Wet and Jim Stewart from the Waterloo Region Health Coalition starts at 1h03m34s.

Many thanks to Riani and Jim for the extensive interview. They have provided their briefing notes:

Briefing Note

May 23, 2019

List of Cuts, Closures, Restructuring

& Major Health Policy Changes to Date

 

  • Cut OHIP+ so families with sick children will have to seek private coverage first and pay deductibles and co-payments. (June 2018)
  • Cut planned mental health funding by more than $330 million. (July 2018)
  • Canceled all new planned overdose prevention sites. (autumn 2018)
  • Cut funding to the College of Midwives of Ontario. (December 2018)
  • Cut funding for the dementia strategy.
  • Let surge funding run out for hospital overcrowding. Surge beds are now closed without replacement, despite overcrowding crisis. (Fall/Winter 2018/19)
  • Cut and restructured autism funding. (Winter 2018/19)
  • Set overall health funding at less than the rate of inflation and population growth, let alone aging. This means service levels cannot keep up with population need. (2019 Budget)
  • Set public hospital funding at less than the rate of inflation. This means real dollar (inflation adjusted dollar) funding cuts and serious service cuts. (2019 Budget)
  • Introduced Bill 74, which gives sweeping new powers to the minster and Super Agency to force restructuring of virtually the entire health system. (February/March 2019)
  • Municipalities revealed Ford government plan to cut and restructure ambulance services, down from 59 to 10. (April 2019)
  • Leaked document reveals plans to cut half a billion dollars in OHIP services. On the chopping block are sedation for colonoscopies, chronic pain management services and others. Plans will be made this spring/summer. (April 2019)
  • Cut OHIP funding for residents travelling out of Canada. (May 2019)
  • Cut 44 positions at the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) –provider of video medical services — which previously employed 265 people. In other words, 1 in every 6 telemedicine staff positions are being cut. The official dollar figure has not yet been released, but, OTN received $42 million in provincial funding 2017-18, nearly all came from the Ministry of Health. (May 2019)
  • Set 2019 land ambulance grant funding at less than the rate of inflation. This means real dollar cuts to ambulance services. The City of Toronto has calculated the value of these cuts to amount to $4 million for Toronto alone. (April 2019)
  • Plans to reduce the number of Public Health Units from 35 to 10. Cut 27%, or $200 million, of provincial funding for public health. Toronto Public Health has been particularly hard-hit. The city of Toronto has calculated the cuts to amount will amount to $1 billion over a 5-year period. Ford government disputes these figures. (April 2019)
  • Cut more than $70 million from eHealth’s budget. (May 2019)
  • Cut almost $53 million from the Health System Research Fund, a fund dedicated to research relevant to provincial policy and health-care system restructuring. (May 2019)
  • Cut $5 million in annual funding for stem-cell research at the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine. (May 2019)
  • Cut $24 million in funding for artificial intelligence research from the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence as well as the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. (May 2019)

Serious Threat of Health Privatization

In Bill 74 the Minister of Health has given herself and the Super Agency vast new powers to order and otherwise force the privatization of most of our health care services. Opposition parties have asked direct questions about private surgery clinics bidding to close down and take over our local hospital services and neither the Premier nor Health Minister will say that they will not privatize. In documents being circulated from municipalities, Ford’s plans may include privatization of parts of ambulance services. In the leaked documents from the Ontario civil service in February, plans were revealed to privatize eHealth, laboratories, air ambulance, long-term care inspections and other services. At no time, under questioning by media and opposition parties, will this government clearly promise not to hand over ownership of our public health care services to private for-profit corporations. The signs of impending privatization are serious.

Ambulance Cuts/Restructuring

Ford’s plans, revealed by municipalities, include cutting the number of local ambulance services from 59 to 10 as well as the number of local dispatch services. These cuts will be particularly devastating to rural and smaller communities which are already suffering from a shortage of services. The Ford government’s restructuring plan does not address any of the causes of too-long EMS response times;  it does not ameliorate services even where there is evidence of significant need. The current EMS system in Ontario was created by Mike Harris’ restructuring in the 1990s. The evidence from that round of restructuring is that costs grew dramatically post-restructuring. Ford’s plans for further centralization of ambulance services and cuts also threaten to deepen inequalities between rural and urban communities:  “Cutting and centralizing the ambulance services down to ten giant regions means that smaller rural and northern communities will be lesser priorities and risks their service levels,” warned OHC executive director Natalie Mehra.

An EMS vision-Ontario 2050 Report came out after the 2018 provincial election, penned by owners of a private, for-profit, ambulance company. The report set out a map towards privatization of land ambulance services. It suggested Ontario could “save” $200 million by consolidating over 50 provincial paramedic services into only 10, run by a single Commission. The fact that the government announced that 59 provincial paramedic services will indeed be consolidated into 10 as the report suggested has led to concerns that the privatization of EMS services is part of Ford’s agenda. The report has also mentioned a plan to reduce the number of Public Health Units from 35 to 10 – a plan that is being implemented by the Ford government.

Public Health Cuts/Restructuring

Severe cuts amounting to almost one-third of provincial funding for public health threaten vital local services including food and water safety, infectious disease tracking and prevention, immunizations, prenatal training and safety, overdose prevention, safe needle and biohazard programs and many others.

 

In the 2019 Provincial Budget it was revealed that the Ford government plans to cut provincial funding for Public Health by 27 per cent and cut the number of local Public Health Units from 35 to 10. In early May, the government made public their plans for the closures/takeovers/mergers of local public health units. There has been no public consultation on this major change even though municipalities match provincial funding for public health, thereby providing half of public health funding. Municipalities were not consulted, public health experts including nurses and doctors who specialize in public health were not consulted, nor were affected communities or Ontarians who fund and rely on Public Health services. The plans that have been revealed to date follow here. In response to pressure, the Ford government is now saying that these are not finalized. However, there is no public process, no written plan that measures or mitigates the impact on the people of Ontario, no plan for consultation, no clear timeline. In fact, no normal processes for public health care planning are being followed whatsoever.

 

The following will be the results of the planned takeover/mergers/closures of Public Health Units if they are forced through by the Ford government: 

  • Middlesex London Health Unit, Southwestern Public Health Unit, Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit and Lambton Public Health Unit will be forced into a single regional Public Health Unit covering 1.3 million people.
  • Bruce Grey Health Unit, Huron County Health Unit and Perth District Health Unit will be forced into a single regional Public Health Unit covering 300,000 people.
  • Public Health Sudbury and Districts, Algoma Public Health, North Bay-Parry Sound District Health Unit, Timiskaming Health Unit, Porcupine Health Unit, and Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit will be forced into a single regional Public Health Unit covering 625,000 people.
  • Thunder Bay District Health Unit and Northwestern Health Unit will will be forced into a single regional Public Health Unit covering 228,000 people.
  • Waterloo Public Health Unit, Halton Public Heath Unit, Peel Public Health Unit, and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Units will be forced into a single regional Public Health Unit covering 2.94 million people.
  • Hamilton Public Health Services, Niagara Region Public Health Unit, Brant County Health Unit, and Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit will be forced into a single regional Public Health Unit covering1.4 million people.
  • Ottawa Public Health Unit, Eastern Ontario Health Unit (Prescott-Russel, Cornwall), Smith Falls Health Unit, and Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) Public Health will be forced into a single regional Public Health Unit covering 1.6 million people.
  • Peterborough Public Health, Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (HKPR) District Health Unit, Hastings Prince Edward Health Unit, and Durham Region Health Unit will be forced into a single regional Public Health Unit covering 1.2 million people.
  • York Region Public Health and Simcoe County District Health Unit will be forced into a single regional Public Health Unit covering 1.7 million people.
  • Toronto Public Health will serve 2.9 million people.

Overall Cuts/Restructuring

The Ford government is now clearly embarking on the most aggressive and radical health care restructuring that Ontario has ever seen. Previous large-scale restructuring in Ontario undertaken by the Mike Harris government involved province-wide hospital restructuring, including hospital mergers and closures of dozens of local hospitals. It ultimately did not reduce administrative costs as was promised. In fact, it cost $3.9 billion. That is $3.9 billion, according to the Provincial Auditor General, to cut $800 million from public hospitals. The restructuring costs were made up of laying off staff, moving buildings, renovating and rebuilding, re-hiring staff, renaming services, re-doing letterheads and communications systems and so on. The evidence is indisputable that those cost were lost to health care and were never recouped. Moreover, restructuring led to for-profit privatization and new user fees for an array of services. The costs were never recovered and many of the current problems that we face in health care can be traced back to the last two rounds of restructuring.

 

Bill 74  – Most Radical Restructuring in our Province’s History

 

In the last few months plans have been revealed that expose the Ford government’s intent to undertake the most radical health care restructuring in our history. Bill 74, the so-called “People’s Health Care Act” has been passed through the Legislature by the majority Ford MPPs against strong opposition. It does not improve a single health  care service. What it does is create one mega-merger of 20 agencies into a Super Agency and give extraordinary restructuring powers to the government. This new law launches restructuring for hospitals, long-term care, home care, community mental health and addictions, community care, cancer care, palliative care, labs, eHealth, air ambulance, community health centres, home care, non-profit primary care and more. The Health Minister has revealed her plan is to restructure 1,800 health service providers down to 30 – 50 conglomerates. That’s not all though. In the Provincial Budget, plans to cut Public Health by almost 1/3 of provincial funding (27%) and reduce Health Units from 35 to 10 were revealed. Then, municipalities revealed the Ford government’s plans to restructure ambulance services from 59 down to 10.

 

 

Sweeping new powers to force mega-mergers, transfer services from one community to another, close services, privatize services

The new law gives sweeping powers to the Minister and the government appointees in their new Super Agency to force through mergers, mega-mergers, amalgamations, transfers of services, closures of local services, and entire closures of service providers. In five separate areas in the legislation these restructuring powers enable the government, its appointees, and health service providers to transfer our public and non-profit health care services to for-profit companies.  Already for-profit hospital companies are making bids to take over surgeries in London Ontario.

 

Unfettered powers to force health care providers to restructure, close, privatize

The legislation allows the Minister and the government appointees that run their new Super Agency the power to order, direct and coerce (using their funding power) local providers of service to comply with these restructuring edicts and pressures. It does this in multiple sections of the legislation. In most of these sections there is no fetter on these extraordinary powers and no public process. It takes away any last

vestiges of local control over health care. They can close a hospital with the stroke of a pen, move a service to another town or close it entirely, order the privatization of all labs or all surgeries, for example. It is truly shocking.

 

No public interest protections, no appeals, no access to information, no clear rulings: worst ever

There are no public interest protections in the legislation. There is no public notice at all for most of the sections that give new restructuring powers. There is minimal public notice in one section. There is no right to appeal anywhere in the legislation. There is no public access to documents anywhere in the legislation. The new Super Agency is not subject even to the conflict of interest rules of the Ontario Public Service. There are no principles to guide restructuring. There is no requirement that any one, not the Minister, not the Super Agency, no one, actually measure and plan to meet population need for health care, protect any local health services at all, ensure that patients have access to care,  worry about the workforce that will be subject to massive upheaval. There are no procedural protections whatsoever.

Who’s Who:

A primer on Doug Ford’s insiders and the pro-privatization forces

in government

 

Charles Lammam, formerly of the extreme right wing Fraser Institute, is now the Director of Policy (2nd highest staff position) in the Health Minister’s office. The Fraser Institute has spent years trying to dismantle Canada’s social programs and one of their prime targets is health care. The Fraser Institute has been funded by the American Koch brothers (funders of the Tea Party) among others.

 

Shelly Jamieson, one of Ford’s appointed board members of the new Super Agency, is the former president of Extendicare, a for-profit long-term care home giant. She was on the Mike Harris government’s Restructuring Commission that ordered the closure of >40 hospitals and thousands of hospital beds. After this she moved to Extendicare which gained from the subsequent expansion of long-term care. Now she is on the new Super Agency, this government’s health restructuring board.

 

Elyse Allan is on the board of Brookfield Assets Management and the right-wing pro-privatization C.D. Howe institute and was recently on the pro-corporate Board of the Conference Board of Canada, the Chamber of Commerce and more.

Other board members include people from banks and private corporations including Real Estate Investment Trusts and others with direct interest in health care privatization.

In July, Doug Ford appointed Rueben Devlin, former president of the Ontario Conservative Party to be the Chair of a new Premier’s Council on Improving Health Care & Ending Hallway Medicine and Special Advisor on Ending Hallway Medicine. The positions come with a $348,000 per year salary for the Conservative stalwart who was president of the party during the Mike Harris era during which the government spent $3.9 billion closing and merging hospitals in an attempt to cut $800 million from their budgets. That was the most radical restructuring of public hospitals in the country’s history at time. Rueben Devlin is also the former CEO of Humber River Hospital where he presided over the closure of three hospitals. The three were replaced with one privatized P3 hospital at an eye-popping $1.76 billion due to the exorbitantly expensive P3 financing and privatization model. In so doing, Devlin closed down a hospital in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of the city. The new P3 hospital did not have enough capacity to serve its population and last fall the former Liberal government reopened one of the closed-down sites in order to deal with patients waiting on stretchers in hallways for care.

Gordon Campbell: Not only does he have an abysmal record on financial matters, but the former B.C. Premier, whom Doug Ford appointed to lead Ford’s fiscal inquiry in Ontario, is perhaps the biggest enemy of public health care in Canada. It is now apparent that Campbell’s model of health cuts and privatization may be the model that Ford is copying here. Campbell set the stage for the biggest growth in for-profit privatization of hospital care in Canada, private clinics in BC openly charge patients thousands of dollars in violation of the Canada Health Act as a direct result of his policies, he cut and closed local hospitals, systematically appointed pro-privatization health board people, fired thousands of hospital support staff and privatized their services. He routinely supported private for-profit interests in pharmaceutical policy and health care against the public interest. The extreme right-wing Fraser Institute loves him, but his record on finances is terrible. Not only did he do all these terrible things in health care, he wiped out a $1.5 billion surplus he inherited when he took government, then went on to post the largest deficits in the B.C.’s history up to that time, and added $20 billion to the province’s debt.

Printable version: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/updated-list-of-cuts-and-analysis-1.pdf (PDF file)

Click here for Facebook post – share this with your friends!
—

More than ever we need your support for public health care! Click here to donate.

~ Protecting Public Medicare for All ~

Ontario Health Coalition
15 Gervais Drive, Suite 201
Toronto, ON M3C 1Y8
ohc@sympatico.ca

www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
416-441-2502

Music List

Podcast

Download: ckms-community-connections-2019-05-27.mp3 (109 MiBytes, 1h59m45s)

CKMS Community Connections airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 every Monday from 10:00am to Noon.

Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.

CKMS logo with wavies coming out the sidesSubscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!

CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community Connections | Mondays 10 am - 12 NoonSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!

Bonus Footage!

YouTube: Community Connections for 27 May 2019
…worse than watching paint dry is watching radio…

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2019 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Attribution to Radio Waterloo. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.

CKMS Community Connections, Shows

CKMS Community Connections for 29 April 2019

Leave a comment

Show Notes

Bob Jonkman, Yenny Stronge, and DJ JD in the control room
Bob Jonkman, Yenny Stronge, and DJ JD in the control room

Music

Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at office@radiowaterloo.ca

Download: ckms-community-connections-2019-04-29.mp3 (163 MBytes, 1h58m48s)

CKMS logo with wavies coming out the sidesSubscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!

CKMS | 102.7 FM | Radio Waterloo | Community Connections | Mondays 10 am - 12 NoonSee all CKMS Community Connections shows!