Healthcare crisis in Ontario is due to Ford’s war on nurses

The Editor, Has the Manotick Messenger assumed a new role as the house organ for the Ontario PC party? One could easily arrive at that conclusion after reading page 4 of the last edition, which was clearly a party press release masquerading as a news article.

For those who managed to miss this puff piece on everyone’s favourite Premier, it was a shameless attempt to whitewash the Ontario PC party’s current mission to destroy public health care in this province. The article was positively gushing with praise for the Premier’s announcement--timed to coincide with a couple of byelections--highlighting a recent decision to invest $330 million “in pediatric health services to connect children and youth to more convenient and high quality care close to home.”

Conspicuous by its ab- sence was any mention of the fact that much of the current crisis in the Ontario healthcare system is a direct result of the Premier’s war on nurses, in particular his bill 124, which caps their wage increases at one percent.

The Health Minister’s own briefing notes re- vealed that bill 124 was a primary cause of the mass exodus of nurses from front-line positions that has resulted in cancelled surgeries and closed emergency rooms, but still Doug Ford remains determined to see those pesky nurses brought into line, which is why he’s appealed the decision that saw bill 124 struck down as unconstitutional.

Can nurses expect to get a reasonable increase during a period of inflation higher than we’ve seen in decades?

Not while Doug’s in charge!

Andy Braid