By Doug Draper
Opposition critics, including Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak and NDP leader Andrea Horwath, hammered at Premier Dalton McGuinty and his health minister, Deborah Matthews, in the provincial legislature this February 17 over cuts to health care and the unelected Local Health Integration Networks the province set up to help manage hospital services.
Ontario Conservative leader and Niagara area MPP Tim Hudak slams McGuinty on hospital cuts, LHIN appointements.
The cutting of hospital services, including the closing of emergency rooms at hospitals in Port Colborne and Fort Erie, were raised during the heated debate. Tory health critic Christine Elliot also took aim at Juanita Gledhill, head of the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for the Niagara and Hamilton areas, questioning her qualifications for the job and describing her as a Liberal Party donor who has a background of working with Liberal members. According to a fact sheet circulated by the Tories, more than $176 million health care dollars have been dolled out to unelected LHIN bodies across the province over the past three years.
More than 40 Liberal appointees sitting on these boards have shown up on the annual Sunshine list for bureaucrats across the province making annual salaries of more than $100,000.
For related stories on the challenges and controversies around hospital services in the Niagara region today, click on www.niagaraatlarge.com. In the meantime, Niagara At Large is posting the hansard for the Feb. 16 in the legislature for the record. You can read it by clicking on keep reading at the end of this sentence, then feel free to share your views in the comment boxes below.
