News from the Ontario Health Coalition, a citizens’ health advocacy group based in Toronto
(A Brief Foreword Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – For anyone in the greater Niagara region in Ontario who has expressed concern about hospital and other health services in this region, the appointment fo a new Ontario health minister should be of interest.
Ontario’s new Minister of Health, Dr. Eric Hoskins
The former health minister for the province, Deb Matthews, has now been sworn in as the Minister Responsible for the Poverty Reduction Strategy, President of the Treasury Board, and Deputy Premier under the new majority government of Premier Kathleen Wynne. She took a lot of flak from Niagara residents in recent years over decisions to proceed with the location of a new super-hospital for Niagara in the region’s north end, in west St. Catharines, and for plans to systematically reduce hospital services in more southern communities in the region.
So here is a new Ontario Health Minister, whose background is outlined below by the Ontario Health Coalition. NAL encourages you to pay attention to who this new minister is and get engaged in decisions his ministry makes around hospital and other health services in Niagara and other regions of the province.)
June 24th, 2014 – In a major cabinet shuffle at Queen’s Park, it has been announced that Deb Matthews is no longer the Minister of Health and Long Term Care. Dr. Eric Hoskins, MPP for St. Paul’s, will take over as Ontario’s Health Minister, while the new position of Long-Term Care Associate Minister will be assumed by Dipika Damerla, MPP for Mississauga East-Cooksville.
Here is a brief bio of Dr. Eric Hoskins:
Dr. Eric Hoskins was first elected as the MPP for the Toronto riding of St. Paul’s in 2009. He has served as Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Employment and before that as Minister of Children and Youth Services and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
After finishing his medical studies at McMaster University, and subsequently at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Hoskins spent nearly a decade as a doctor and humanitarian in war-torn regions in Africa and around the world. Dr. Hoskins later served as the senior advisor to then Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy on such issues as human rights, child soldiers, peacekeeping and the landmines ban. Together with his wife Dr. Samantha Nutt, the two founded the international charity War Child Canada to help hundreds of thousands of children in war-affected regions across the globe.
In 2008, he was invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has also received the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Cross, and has been awarded the United Nations Lester B. Pearson Peace Medal.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
Things didn’t change much between Smitherman and Matthews. I am not going to hold my breath waiting for a big change from Matthews to Hoskins. I expect more of the “same old, same old.”
Hospital boards should be made up of elected (underscore ELECTED) members of the community!
LHINs should be dumped, along with their bloated bureaucracy.
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Deb Matthews was a clone of McGuinty before and after she was appointed to the Health portfolio and during her stay (too long) in that post she was absolutely unapproachable to anyone including the very people she was charged with assisting.
The total disregard for consultation with the peoples of Niagara South concerning their dire Health needs by her and her predecessors was close to be criminal and should never be allowed to happen again EVER. Deb Sevenpifer, NHS CEO and PRESIDENT after constant haggling held “ONE” open meeting and that was in the busy hallway of the Welland YMCA and even though she was offered a room she refused.
The outlined history of Dr Hoskins and his Wife hopefully ushers in a “NEW” and progressive (future) approach to politics and the effect consultation has on the concept of inclusion. We are “ALL” in this together and avoiding interaction, debate and consultation with the stakeholder is paramount to disaster which we feel is what took place in Niagara when the lives of people was put in jeopardy by this total avoidance.
People will understand and back you doctor if you respect their fears and ask for their assistance…It is NOT rocket Science to talk honestly and sincerely to people. But it is smart.
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Doug this is for will and other like minded people
Thank You Will
“Election” to Boards and Commissions should be compulsory and if you remember it was the Late Peter Kormos who tried in vain to have that incorporated in Ontario…People are constantly berating the role of elected people, like Kormos who do not belong to the government at the time……YET… They fail to realize that MPP Kormos introduced and proposed more “People’s Rights” legislation than “ANY” sitting member of the Legislature, most were denied including one of the most important, that being the donor legislation that would have had a tremendous result in death determination to very sick and dying Canadian People.
Once again Will I thank You for your love of country and like you I hope that one day this country can gain back the respect it lost in the past ten or so years.
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