Defend Public Healthcare

It's now apparent that the Pogressive Conservatives will allow the Liberals to batter teachers and school support staff with legislation imposing takeaways. Even if this legislation does  pass, the question is what will the twin parties do to the rest of the public sector? There is, after all, a lot more bargaining coming up. Is more legislation coming from the twins? While I'm no lawyer, sweeping legislation covering all workers in the public sector sounds like it may have more constitutional problems than legislation covering this or that bargaining unit after there has been a genuine attempt by the employer to bargain a collective agreement. But if the Liberal/PCs have to bring in legislation imposing a compensation freeze and concessions unit by unit, that is going to bring an awful lot of political problems for them.

The Police Association of Ontario has released several documents on Tim Hudak and the the Progressive Conservatives. And they appear decidedly not pleased: "The PAO remains very concerned about comments made by the Progressive Conservative Party Leader Tim Hudak in relation to the Arbitration System. We simply cannot sit on the sidelines – there’s too much at stake." This is unusual territory for the Police Association, but they feel compelled to speak out: "It is very unusual for the PAO to side with one Party over another, or take a position during an election, as we recognize that we need to work with whichever political party is elected. The PAO desires to remain nonartisan. However, our concern is so great that the PAO’s Board of Directors feels compelled to inform our membership of what is very likely to occur if Tim Hudak’s PC Party is elected." Some other election materials prepared by the PAO on arbitration ( Just the Facts Maam and Election 9

As part of his campaign to justify his 'last resort' plan to freeze public sector wages, Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak told reporters that he 'would try to negotiate with the province’s unions to ensure wages don’t rise faster than economic growth in the future.' Well public sector wage settlements this year are about half of the inflation rate. This means wages are falling in terms of what you can actually buy, never mind getting any part of the economic growth of the province. Public sector settlements are also lower than private sector settlements. And they were lower than inflation and lower than private sector settlements last year too. Faster than economic growth? It's hard to solve economic problems if you prefer to make up myths and blame the innocent.

Standing outside the Fort Erie Hospital, New Democrat leader Andrea Horwath    condemned catastrophic cuts to health care including the closure of emergency rooms at the hospital and nearby Port Colborne. The Fort Erie hospital's emergency room was closed in September 2009, just months after the emergency room in nearby Port Colborne was also closed. Horwath was accompanied by the family of Reilly Anzovino, a teenager who died after a car crash in 2009 when her ambulance had to travel 20 kilometres to a hospital because Fort Erie's ER was closed. Her family believes her life may have been saved if the Fort Erie ER had remained opened.  Horwath has promised to re-open the two Emergency Rooms. The Liberals side-stepped the issue on Saturday, according to the Toronto Sun.   Right now, we can only guess and fear. But given the funding plans, cuts to more emergency rooms sounds likely  after the election. 

The Ontario government is launching a massive drive to bring many more public private partnership (P3) hospitals to Ontario. While this is getting little play in the election, this form of privatization will have major consequences for Ontario. England  started the P3 (or "PFI") craze, launching a similar, massive P3 drive over a decade ago.  They are now beginning to regret it dearly, with 60 hospitals falling into financial crisis due to their P3 deals.   Here are some of the results in England   according to  the normally conservative newspaper,  The Telegraph  : The taxpayer owes a total of £121.4 billion on P3s  projects -- although they are worth only £52.9 billion. Next year’s P3 bill alone will be £8.6 billion (a little under  $14 billion ) The National Audit Office reported in April that that each household will have to pay nearly £400 ($632) next year. Young people starting work this year will pay taxes for the P3s until they are nearly 70

It was a fight, but, during the federal election, the people forced the federal Conservative Party to commit to increasing health care transfers to the provinces by 6% for two years after the expiry of the current ten year health care transfer deal in 2014.   But we only squeezed two years out of the Tories.  The last deal  guaranteed  secure transfers for ten years.  Much more of a push is needed to get a commitment beyond two years. Now Tim Hudak is the latest Tory to drag his feet.  When asked by the Globe and Mail " if he would push the Prime Minister for a second 10-year accord, Mr. Hudak would say only that he wants funding to continue." This appears to be  as feared : Hudak has  clammed  up in Conservative solidarity.  People outside of the federal and provincial Tory parties have been calling for a ten year deal with the same escalator for some time .    Unfortunately, Hudak's position goes directly against Ontario's interests. New federal health

There is not an awful lot new for health care in the recently released Ontario Liberal Party election program, Forward Together .   As far as hospitals are concerned, they emphasize the development of new hospitals. They play down that this will largely be done through expensive and troubled "public private partnerships" (which have been discussed many times on this site).  Nor do they mention that these are not really new hospitals -- just redeveloped hospital facilities.  Nor that as they have redeveloped hospitals, they have actually closed hundreds of hospital beds, closed emergency rooms, and cut some other services too.  The Liberals emphasize removing patients from hospitals and treating them elsewhere, a long term policy of the Liberals.  This policy has been used to justify the bed cuts and the dangerously high bed occupancy levels.  Somewhat more positively the Libs claim: "We will ensure that Ontario keeps the shortest surgical wait times in the country an

Tim Hudak and the Progressive Conservatives may be taking Christina Blizzard's suggestion  that they trim their message and focus on attacking public sector "entitlements".    His response to the  Toronto Star's dismissal of the PC municipal program was to attack public sector union settlements and interest arbitration: " Dalton McGuinty’s broken arbitration system has cost municipalities hundreds of million of dollars for excessive wage settlements that hamstring local leaders and burden families who pay the bills. For nearly eight years, Dalton McGuinty has handed out unsustainable collective agreements, which set the benchmark for arbitrations with municipal public sector workers. .... On Oct. 6, Ontario families will face a  clear   choice  between more of Dalton McGuinty downloading the cost of his  broken  arbitration system onto municipalities, or an Ontario PC government that will provide families with relief." Hudak and the PCs may be unaffected

Dalton McGuiny told the Association of Municipalities of Ontario that a Progressive Conservative government would mean  that Ontario municipalities  will find themselves back in the Mike Harris days of cost cutting and downloading, the Toronto Star reports . Cost cutting for sure.   But I am not sure how McGuinty's funding plan is any better. According to the Auditor General, the funding plan of the Liberal government would see  a sharp reduction in overall spending increases ( from 7.2% over the last eight years to 1.8% for the next two)  That's quite a tumble, to a level of increase that is less than the government's inflation forecast (and 60% of the inflation rate right now). Programs outside of health care, education, post secondary / training, and social services will see decreased funding: reducing spending 1.8% annually for Justice and 5.6% annually for all other programs. That is one heck of a hit for Ontario municipalities, who depend on cash from the