Defend Public Healthcare

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.

The health care funding plans by the Liberals would see annual average increases over the next four years of about 3.2%. For the Progressive Conservatives, the increases would be just slightly less (for the reason noted in yesterday's post). This contrasts with promises from the federal government to increase their transfers for health care by 6% annually for the same time period. That's almost double what the province would put in  (and much closer to the actual cost pressures facing health care). However, when you consider the increasing federal transfers for health care will actually pay for almost half of the provincial funding increase, the money for health care actually raised by the province  would only be about 1.6%.  Compare that with 6% from the federal government coffers. In other words, the federal government percentage increase is almost four times the increase that would come from money raised by the province . Getting almost four times the increase from a

A few months ago, the Auditor General reviewed  the Liberal health care funding plan for the next two years and reported that those increases would average 3.6% annually. This is much less than previous years (about half) and the Auditor was openly skeptical that the government could implement this without significant health care cuts, even with a wage freeze. Hospitals for example " may have little alternative but to cut services."  Strong words for an auditor.   But now, inexplicably, buried in the costings of the Liberal program, the Liberals have determined that they won't even meet this.  They will only increase health care funding by 3.6% next year, 2012-13. The year after that the increase will fall to 2.86%, a loss of .74%. This will mean the loss of $360 million dollars in health care funding annually, starting in 2012-13.   The average annual increase will be 3.2% rather than 3.6%. The Liberal four year increase would also be about 3.2% annually, bas

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

Elections often make the concerns of working people rise a little bit in the sights of the major business parties.  And this election has seen some of that as well. Notably, the Liberals are now beginning to make some noise about job creation. That's perhaps a bit better than the Progressive Conservatives, whose job creation strategy is little more than some wishful thinking about tax breaks and the magic of the market. In the last couple of days, the Liberals have begun to loudly  tout  their spending on public transit infrastructure, claiming it will create tens thousands of construction jobs. But are these really new jobs? There was a lot of cash spent (and a lot of media releases from Liberal politicians) on public infrastructure projects during the last four years.  Those constructions jobs came and went as the construction projects were completed.   That's the nature of the construction business.  So this announcement sounds more like the government is really just

Based on a survey of 542 Canadian employers with 800,000 salaried employees, a new report from AON says increases for salaried employees increased 2.9% in 2011 and will increase a further 3.1% in 2012.  For Ontario the increases are 2.7% in 2011 and 3.0% in 2012. Salaried employees are usually non-unionized managers or professionals. In contrast, Ontario unionized public sector wage settlements in 2011 have average annual increases of 1.5%, according to the Ministry of Labour -- a little more than half what salaried employees are getting.  Private sector union settlements are averaging 1.8% in 2011. Despite this discrepancy, Tim Hudak and the Progressive Conservatives have singled out public sector workers for so-called " fat raises ," threatening to attack trade unions, interest arbitration, and  public sector union settlements if elected. This as the Conference Board of Canada came to the (hardly surprising) conclusion that income inequality in Canada has been ris

An important part of the Progressive Conservative platform is privatization .  So it's worth looking at the results of the privatization initiatives they took the last time they were in government.  One notable PC initiative was "patient transfers". The Ontario Progressive Conservative government introduced legislation in 2000 allowing hospitals to use for-profit "patient transfer" companies rather than ambulances to move patients between hospitals or long-term care facilities if the patient was in stable condition. This led to a drastic increase in the number of patients transferred by for-profit companies. Despite assurances prior to the legislative changes from then Minister of Health Elizabeth Witmer and her parliamentary secretary Tim Hudak, now the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, minimum standards for staff or equipment were never developed by the ministries of health or transportation (nor have they been developed under the l

At last week's (very successful) Poverty and Health Care conference, A.J. from CUPE Local 1281 asked me how hospital beds per capita had changed in Ontario. My answer is here, as promised: 1980 Hospital Beds = 63,089 1981 Ontario population = 8,625,000 Beds per 1,000 people = 7.31 1991 Hospital Beds = 47,818 1991 Population = 10,085,000 Beds per 1,000 people = 4.74 2010 Hospital Beds =30,810 2010 Population  = 13,210,667 Beds per 1,000 people = 2.33 In other words, the number of hospital beds per capita was twice as high nineteen years ago, and more than three times higher 30 years ago. Hospital delays, cancelled surgeries, ER back-ups, ambulance off-load delays, and higher levels of hospital acquired superbug infections are all part of the 'new normal' in hospitals. Is it any wonder?  This should be an election issue.