NDP Leader Vows To Re-Open Closed Emergency Rooms In Niagara

By Doug Draper

An Ontario New Democratic Party government would re-open the emergency departments at the hospitals in border town of Fort Erie and nearby Port Colborne, said the party’s leader, Andrea Horwath, as she stood in front of Fort Erie’s Douglas Memorial Hospital this Saturday,  September 24.

Ontario NDP leader makes hospital stop in Fort Erie, Ontario. Photo by Doug Draper

“New Democrats will put patients first when it comes to your hospitals,” said Horwath, the first leader of the three major parties to make campaign stops in Niagara during this provincial election. “We will put patients first by making sure we re-open your emergency rooms here in Fort Erie and in Port Colborne.”

The emergency rooms at the hospitals in those two municipalities were closed more than two years ago in the wake of a so-called ‘Hospital Improvement Plan’ the unelected boards of the Niagara Health System, the body that the previous Conservative government of Mike Harris, and a Local Health Integration Network that the Conservatives launched and the governing Liberals saw to fruition without question.Horwath charged that the Hospital Improvement Plan (or HIP, as it is more commonly known in these parts) has led to “devastating cuts” to hospital services in the Niagara region. With members of the family of Reilly Anzovino standing near her, she added that this “crisis in health care services” possibly led to the death of Reilly, a teenager, who died following a car accident in her hometown of Fort Erie, after the emergency room there and in nearby Port Colborne closed, and paramedics had no choice but to take her to an emergency room at a hospital site further away in Welland.

Niagara Falls NDP candidate speaks during Horwath visit to Fort Erie hospital site. Photo by Doug Draper

Horwath went on to say that an NDP government would cap the salaries of CEOs and other administrators working for hospital boards like the NHS and reinvest the money in front-line services for patients.

Wayne Redekop, a former Fort Erie mayor and the NDP candidate running in a Niagara Falls riding that includes Fort Erie, Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake, said that he and others have been warning for almost a decade that the NHS would cut critical services at hospitals in Niagara’s southern tier but neither the former Conservative government or now-governing Liberals would listen.

He added that Tim Hudak, a Fort Erie native and leader of the provincial Conservatives, has promised that, if he were to become premier, he would re-open the emergency room at Fort Erie’s hospital “if people of Fort Erie want it.”

“Well I guess (Hudak) isn’t listening very well,” he said, because that is what the people of Fort Erie want.

Following her stop in Fort Erie, Horwath’s bus moved on to the Welland Riding where NDP candidate Cindy Forster is hoping to be the third consecutive provincial NDP candidate to take over the seat held by the late Mel Swart and retiring Peter Kormos.

“Peter is leaving some big shoes to fill, but I can tell you that Cindy is ready and able to fill them,” said Horwath during that stop. “City has been taking care of Welland for decades as a nurse, as mayor (of Welland) and now as a regional councillor. She’ll bring that passion and experience to Queen’s Park to keep fighting for your community.”

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