By Doug Draper
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath will host a town hall meeting in Niagara Falls this Tuesday, April 6 to discuss cuts to hospitals and other local health care services with residents across the region.
Members of the Niagara citizens group the Yellow Shirt Brigade, from left, Merilyn Athoe, Joy Russell and Linda McKeller, in front of a sign protesting the loss of emergency and other services at Fort Erie's hospital. They plan to join other residents at a town hall meeting in Niagara Falls this April 6 and a rally for protecting public health care in Toronto this April 7.
Horvath and her party, along with Tim Hudak’s Conservatives, have been hammering away at the province’s Liberal government almost daily over the past few weeks over the closing of emergency rooms at hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne, and other cuts, and over what they believe to be mismanagement of services and funding by the provincially created Niagara Health System and Local Health Integration Networks.
The NDP leader’s trip to Niagara Falls this April 6 is the second time in three months that she has come to the region to address health care concerns specifically. Horwath came to Fort Erie last January to hold a media briefing in front of the hospital there to discuss service cuts.
This coming Wednesday, April 7, Niagara residents, including the Yellow Shirt Brigade (a citizens group fighting for the restoration of hospital services in the region’s southern tier) will be busing off to a rally in Toronto. That rally will begin at 11:45 a.m. in front of the Royal York Hotel where the province’s health minister, Deb Matthews, is scheduled to deliver a talk entitled ‘Patients First Means Quality First: Building the Health System Ontarians Deserve’, to members of the Canadian Club.
“This blithe insistence that less health care can be equated to better quality health care is yet another example of the McGuinty government’s total dismissal of the concerns of thousands of Ontario residents — especially those in small, rural and northern communities — about the effects of hospital restructuring and budget cuts on residents and whole communities,” said Fiona McMurran, a community activist from Welland and member of the Yellow Shirt Brigade.
”If this hypocrisy has you as fed up as I am, “ added McMurran, “I urge you to consider joining other Niagara citizens in a (peaceful!) protest rally outside the Royal York Hotel on the morning of April 7.”
The Ontario Health Coalition, a Toronto-based advocacy group for health care in the province, is sponsoring a bus to take Niagara residents to the protest. The bus will pick up those who have registered at the Welland Market, at 8:30 a.m. Seats are limited, so, if you would like to come, please do contact me as soon as possible, at 905-788-0756. There will be a small charge of $5.00 to offset the cost to the OHC of the bus rental.
Buses for anyone wanting to attend the rally will also be leaving Niagara from the Pen Center at 9 a.m. and the Fort Erie Leisureplex off Hwy. 3 at 8 a.m. at the same cost of $5 per person.
To Reserve a seat on the buses contact: Welland Area Fiona McMurran 905-788-0756 fmcmurran@cogeco.ca
Fort Erie Area Merilyn Athoe 905-894-5545 bearlyn@lastmilenet.ca
St. Catharines Area Sue Hotte 905-932-1646 suehotte@yahoo.ca
Picket Signs are Welcome
Organizers say picket signs are most welcome. “This is another opportunity for the voice (of Niagara residents) to be heard,” they say.
(Click on www.niagaraatlarge.com for Niagara At Large for news and commentary on other matters of concern and interest to residents in our greater binational Niagara region.)
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