Former Ontario Liberal Governments played a significant role in breaking the system
A News Release from Ontario’s NDP Official Opposition Party
Posted January 19th, 2024 on Niagara At Large
QUEEN’S PARK – Ontarians deserve healthcare that’s there when they need it. Access shouldn’t depend on how much money one has in the bank. That’s why Tommy Douglas’ NDP created the framework for public universal healthcare – publicly funded and publicly delivered.
But how did we go from having a healthcare system envied around the world to the crisis we are in right now?
Well, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane:
* 1996: Conservative Premier Mike Harris, infamous for his austerity measures, opened competitive bidding for home care, which allowed for-profit companies to take over home care delivery. Today, we have a home care system that is beyond broken.
* 1997: Conservatives pushed hospitals to restrict in-house lab testing for hospitals, opening the market for private labs
Former Ontario Tory Premier Mike Harris (left), and current Premier Doug Ford, Harris’s friend and student in the field of privatizing health care and are other public services of reducing government and privatizing services.
* 2001: Harris’ Conservatives introduced their profit-driven model for building new hospitals, leading to massive public cost overruns and delays. The Auditor General found (https://www.bramptonguardian.com/news/auditor-general-says-brampton-paid-more-for-new-hospital-using-private-financing-model/article_cd8ba21e-fc4e-5848-84d4-ed953316105a.html) $200 million in waste for one hospital alone.
* 2003: Breaking their campaign promise, Liberals continued this path by reducing the number of services provided under OHIP in favour of for-profit healthcare
* 2013: Liberals announced plans to expand private clinics to take services out of community hospitals. Ongoing advocacy and consistent pressure from community organizations and Ontario NDP stopped the Liberal government from allowing new private healthcare providers to operate outside of the Public Hospitals Act
* 2017: Liberal mismanagement drove hallway medicine in Ontario to brutal levels. More than 4,300 patients received care in the hallways of one hospital alone.
* 2019: Ford’s Conservatives create Ontario Health, a superagency to contract public healthcare services to private companies
* 2024: The Ford government, who came into power in 2018, is now trying to take this decades-long effort to privatize our healthcare system to the finish line. As a result, Ontarians will be stuck waiting longer, experiencing poorer patient outcomes, and paying more out of pocket for healthcare that should be publicly funded and publicly delivered. All while the Conservatives’ wealthy insiders made a fortune off sick Ontarians’ backs. Marit Stiles’ Official Opposition NDP calls on the Conservatives to return the Legislature to work together to fix the health care crisis.
* 2026: Premier Marit Stiles and her Ontario NDP government prioritize health care crisis, starting by investing in staffing shortages to reduce wait times and improve care.
A Footnote from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large –
The late Tommy Douglas, Canada’s founder of publicly-funded health care for all in Canada , once said this; “Don’t ever let them tell you we can’t afford health care.
Watch Tommy Douglas talking about that by clicking on the screen below –
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders
Niagara At Large 
There is no doubt that the cost of hospitals today is staggering but you have to wonder why every new hospital being built across Ontario is designed different. Whether the hospital is in Sudbury, Niagara Falls or Toronto it’s purpose is the same. I can understand that changes for one reason or another might be implemented such as size or purpose but the basic design and layout could be kept the same, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in design and time driving costs up. ………………………..When thinking about it, that might be too easy.
LikeLike