Ontario Health Coalition Province-Wide Community Referendum to Stop Ford Government's Privatization of Our Public Hospitals

TORONTO, April 18, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Health Coalitions across Ontario launched a major fightback to stop the privatization of our public hospitals today. The Coalition is mounting a community-run referendum. Health Coalitions are organizing voting stations outside grocery stores, local corner stores, coffee shops, at legions and community centres and in every busy part of our communities possible.

Ontario residents who are 16 years or older will be able to cast a ballot on the question:
"Do you want our public hospital services to be privatized to for-profit hospitals and clinics?" Yes or No.

The referendum voting days will be taking place on Friday May 26th and Saturday May 27th. More than a thousand voting stations will be open across Ontario. During the month of May, online voting will be available on the main website PublicHospitalVote.ca and workplace votes will take place.

The Ford government has now announced it is moving forward with plans to "significantly" [their words] expand privatization of surgeries and diagnostics and private hospitals and clinics to for-profit clinics and hospitals. They have brought in new legislation to facilitate this plan. They have used their majority to vote down all recommended amendments to the legislation, and Bill 60, which is in Third Reading debate in the Legislature, is expected to pass this week. They will use their majority to pass the bill, even though Ontarians have never had any say over this plan to privatize our hospitals.

In fact, the Ford government said that they would NOT do this in the lead in to the election, then two months after the election, they announced they were moving forward with the privatization of our core public hospitals' services.

• The government has already called for bids for three new private day hospitals to do 14,000 cataract surgeries initially as well as diagnostics.
• They have given repeated boosts of tens of millions in new funding to expand existing private clinics to cover care for "thousands of patients".
• They are expanding the number of private clinics and intend to further expand the volumes as well as to expand the types of surgeries they privatize. They plan to have private hip and knee surgeries up and running by 2024.
• At the same time the government has underspent the health care budget and the COVID budget every year by billions of dollars. The most recent figures show that while we are underspending on health care by $1.25 billion, the Ontario government has increased funding massively for the private for-profit clinics and hospitals. It is a big transfer of money from our public health care services to for-profits. 

Practically every public hospital in Ontario has operating rooms that shut down at 4 p.m. and on weekends, or are closed for weeks or even permanently, due to lack of funding and staffing. We do not need new operating rooms -- only now they would be owned by for-profit companies. We need our government to support our local public hospitals which have the lowest funding in Canada. 

Our assessment is that this is very serious and extremely urgent. The premier told media that 50% of the surgeries currently done in hospitals are "easy" [and thus could be transferred out of public hospitals]. Surgeries, MRIs and CTs are core public hospital services.

This is not an add on, it is the privatization of our core public hospital services. The loss of these surgeries ? and the staff and funding that go with them -- would be devastating to all local public hospitals and would gut the services that remain in many of the medium and small hospitals.

While paying lip service to the idea that Ontarians will "pay with their OHIP card not their credit card", in Bill 60, the Ford government expressly allows the for-profit clinics to sell an increasing array of medically unnecessary add-ons to needed surgeries and diagnostics. The Canada Health Act, which bans user fees and extra charges for patients for access to physicians, surgeries and diagnostic tests, is being ignored by the government. Patients are increasingly reporting exorbitant charges for their needed health care including access to doctors, tests and surgeries -- things for which no patient in Canada should ever be charged. There is little question that the Premier is playing both sides, claiming you will always "pay with your OHIP card" and expanding two-tier charges for patients as it privatizes a whole array of services.

If this government succeeds in privatizing our public hospitals, we will lose our public hospital system and with it, single-tier public medicare.

The following communities are joining in the referendum across Ontario. The Ontario Health Coalition is asking people everywhere across the province to volunteer to help. Volunteers can contact the Ontario Health Coalition at [email protected].

Greater Toronto Area: Carolyn Egan at 416-806-7985 or [email protected]
Durham: Pam Parks at 905-447-1124 or [email protected]
Peel: Mohammad Ali Aumeer at 416-770-7858 or [email protected]
Algoma: Albert Dupuis at 613-808-7710 or [email protected]
North Bay: Henri Giroux at 705-471-7746 or [email protected]
Thunder Bay: Jules Tupker at 807-577-5946 or [email protected]
Simcoe County: Anisa Carrascal at 647-835-7870 or [email protected]
Simcoe North: Don Copping at 705-549-0366 or [email protected]
Guelph: Brit Hancock at 289-690-6758 or [email protected]
Halton: Helen Lee at [email protected]
London: Peter Bergmanis at 519-860-4403 or [email protected]
Oxford: Bryan J. Smith at 226-228-8309 or [email protected]
Waterloo: Jim Stewart at 519-588-5841 or [email protected]
Chatham-Kent: Shirley Roebuck at 226-402-2724 or [email protected]
Grey Bruce County: Norah Beatty at 519-477-3513 or [email protected]
Sarnia-Lambton: Shirley Roebuck at 226-402-2724 or [email protected]
Windsor: Tracey Ramsey at 519-995-0239 or [email protected]
Haliburton: Bonnie Roe at 705-457-6579 or [email protected]
Kingston: Joan Jardin at 613-305-2716 or [email protected]
Northumberland: Linda Mackenzie-Nicholas at 905-376-2189 or [email protected]
Peterborough: Marion Burton at 705-868-7352 or [email protected]
Cornwall/SDG: Louise Lanctot at 613-932-1943 or [email protected]
Ottawa: Ed Cashman at 343-999-6886 or [email protected]
Renfrew County: Leona Haley at 613-602-1646 or [email protected]
Hamilton: Janina Lebon at 905-545-5514 or [email protected]
Niagara: Sue Hotte at 905-932-1646 or [email protected]
For more information at Ontario-wide level: Natalie Mehra, executive director, 416-230-6402