By Doug Draper
(Click on www.niagaraatlarge.com for Niagara At Large for more news and commentary on this and other matters of concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)
Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak returned to his hometown of Fort Erie, Ontario this April 29 to promise that he is the province’s next premier, the Fort Erie hospital’s emergency room will be reopened.
Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak in front of his hometown hospital in Fort Erie, Ontario, promising to reopen its emergency room if he is elected premier.
“Today, I am committing that if elected premier, I will ensure that if this community wants the emergency room re-opened, a Tim Hudak government will re-open it,” said the Conservative leader at a media conference he held in front of Fort Erie’s Douglas Memorial Hospital.
Hudak went on to charge that the Hamilton-Niagara-Haldimand-Brant Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) ordered the closing of Fort Erie’s ER even as its Ontario Liberal government “appointees … helped themselves to fat pay increases – paid for by local health care dollars.”
At the Hamilton-Niagara-Haldimand-Brant LHIN, the number of people making $100,000 or more has doubled since its creation four years ago, added Hudak. This includes the LHIN CEO who now gets paid $289,000 a year after being handed $53,000 worth of raises since 2006.
There are just a couple of questions this reporter has here.
First, to what extent should the Niagara Health System – the NHS organization launched a decade ago by the former Conservative government (of which Hudak was a cabinet minister) have to play here? After all, it was the NHS that put a so-called “Hospital Improvement Plan” before the LHIN for its approval two years this coming August that included the possibility of closing emergency rooms at the hospital sites in Fort Erie and Port Colborne.
And why didn’t Hudak also promise this April 29 to also re-open the emergency room at the hospital in Port Colborne too if he becomes premier? Don’t the people in the Port Colborne and Wainfleet area of the region deserve to have the emergency room re-opened at their hospital too?
Niagara At Large has put that question to Hudak’s assistants and will be pleased to post it when we get an answer.
Meanwhile, the following is more information from media release Hudak’s office circulated following the Conservative leader’s media conference this April 29 in front of the Fort Erie hospital.
QUOTES:
“Today, I am committing that if elected Premier, I will ensure that if this community wants the emergency room opened again, a Tim Hudak Government will re-open it.”
–Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak
“Fort Erie families living under the constant threat of frontline health care cuts deserve better from their government. We cannot afford to waste valuable health care dollars on needless bureaucracy. Dalton McGuinty’s LHIN model is broken and has to go.”
–Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak
QUICK FACTS:
· At the Hamilton-Niagara-Haldimand-Brant LHIN, the number of people making $100,000 or more has doubled to six since its creation four years ago. These six LHIN senior officials alone were paid $1,007,000 in 2009.
· Since 2006, the Niagara LHIN CEO has been handed $53,000 worth of raises – and now makes $289,000 a year.
· In total, $12.9 million health care dollars have been diverted from frontline care to pay for administrative costs at the Niagara LHIN.
Niagara At Large 
I have the same questions as Doug. How does the NHS fit into all of this? They are going to want a say and may end up having egg all over their faces should this occur. Also they have removed much of the equipment and many staff have moved on or transfered to other sites. The creation of the NHS by the previous Conservative government was a fiasco tying hospitals who regularly balanced their budgets to a couple who were perpetually over their heads in debt (the ones who are now reaping the most benefits I might add). Maybe the NHS will be disbanded by one of its creators. That would be ironic.
Also, the question of reopening Port Colborne doesn’t just stop there. What about all of the other communities who have been fighting the same type of closures and amalgamations like Cambridge and Peterborough? He’ll open a real can of worms and better be prepared to follow up with all of those communities.
It’s amazing that he is suddenly the saviour of the public sector (health care) when he has previously been such a staunch proponent of the private sector (although his pay check is from the public sector). Time will tell if he’s truly had an epiphany. In this same vein, where has he been for the past year and why has he been so silent (and absent) until recently?
This offer is, of course, conditional – IF he is still party leader and IF his party is elected. Big if’s and a long way down the road yet but pending elections can perform miracles. Guess we just have to wait and see. Regardless of this “proclamation” it is vital to keep matter in the public eye.
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I was at prodigal son Hudak’s press conference in front of Fort Erie’s former hospital. He sounded very ‘convincing’ indeed, almost enough to shorten even this old-timer’s memory. But, remember how Hu-dat the arch-conservative recently lowly insulted Kim Craitor a liberal and the one area politician who truly fought for the Fort Erie hospital? Hu-dat is the sort of self-serving politician who would say just about anything to get some extra votes. Hu-dat was oh so slick today. So, Hu-dat returned ‘home.’ We all may forgive his long absence, past misdeeds and gross neglect. Does that mean we should suddenly trust him? I was almost a sucker for Hu-dat’s political lies today, but that does not mean I’ll be an old fool tomorrow.
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I think we all saw Tim Hudak’s approach to public services like health care and education during the Mike Harris years: slash and burn, and ignore the human fall-out. I hope the people of South Niagara don’t fall for this ploy.
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“IF” Seems to be Hu-dat’s standard phrase and Yes if our Southern tier people vote for this Judas then they will deserve to be shafted again for was it not Hu-dat’s and his Harris Buddies who brought about this criminal deed.
The only party that maintained a constant fight for all the peoples was Andrea Horwath’s and she never waivered in her dedication to our cause.
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