Monday July 21 and Tuesday July 22 – See Details Below
A Call-Out from the Ontario Health Coaltion, a citizens group advocating for quality public health care for everyone across the province
Posted July 15th, 2025 on Niagara At Large
All the provincial and territorial premiers from across Canada will be in Huntsville for their annual meeting hosted by Doug Ford this year at Deerhurst Resort just outside Huntsville near Algonquin Provincial Park from Monday July 21 – Wednesday July 23.
At the same time the Health Coalitions from across Canada — alongside patient groups, seniors’ organizations, public health care workers, and organized labour — are gathering, rising up, and demanding urgent action to address the health care crisis. We are working in solidarity to support environmental and Indigenous organizations protecting the environment and treaty rights.
We will join together to hold a Shadow Summit just down the road on the first day of the Council of the Federation (Monday). The next day (Tuesday) the Canadian Health Coalition will join us to host a rally & car cavalcade attended by everyone.
Background
As Canada’s premiers meet behind closed doors, our public health care system is in open crisis. Runaway privatization is taking funding and staff away from public health care services. Staffing shortages are a national catastrophe forcing emergency departments to close and leaving health care workers with impossible workloads while patients wait longer and suffer more.
Private clinics are violating the Canada Health Act, charging patients hundreds to thousands of dollars for surgeries and diagnostic tests in illegal user fees and extra-billing. Seniors can’t access the care they need. Mental health and addiction services are underfunded, subject to privatization and cuts, or are simply unavailable. Millions still do not have access to family medicine. The implementation of the first phase pharmacare (drug coverage for all) has stalled.
All this is happening as billions are poured into militarization and border enforcement — billions earmarked for Donald Trump’s priorities while the urgent daily health care needs of people are not being addressed.
This Shadow Summit is a call to action. While our political leaders talk about new “nation-building” plans, those things that have created equity and a more just society in our nation-building over the last century – a world class public health system, environmental and labour protections, the first steps towards reconciliation with First Nations and Indigenous Peoples – are at risk. If the only pressure our governments feel comes from Donald Trump and the corporate agenda, we will lose them.
It is our obligation to stand in support behind First Nations and Indigenous peoples who are fighting to protect their treaty rights, finally achieve access to clean and safe water, and get the health care services their communities need.
We reject expanding war budgets and gutting regulatory protections while patients and health care workers are left to beg for care. We need to mount countervailing public pressure to demand funding for _public _health care, an end to rampant privatization schemes led by the governments in Ontario and Alberta, and true public solutions to the crisis.
Access to universal, comprehensive public health care is a core foundation of any just economy. Any government that claim to prioritize the economy while ignoring the collapse of health care has lost their moral compass.
Now is the time to stand up for public health care and the values it represents: equity, compassion, dignity, and care for all.
Canadians overwhelmingly support our public system. It’s time for governments to listen — and act.
Hosted by the Canadian Health Coalition, Ontario Health Coalition & the Ontario Federation of Labour
Shadow Summit, Car Cavalcade & Rally
Monday July 21 – Shadow Summit
at Hidden Valley Resort, 1755 Valley Rd, Huntsville, ON P1H 1A8 (next door to Deerhurst Resort where the Premiers are meeting).
* 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Opening plenary
_Updates on key issues from the Canadian Health Coalition, the BC Health Coalition, Manitoba Health Coalition, Nova Scotia Health Coalition, Ontario Health Coalition, a coalition representative from Quebec, and others._
* 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. Workshops (see below for list & registration)
_Presenters leading the workshops in the morning and afternoon include representatives from the BC Health Coalition, Canadian Health Coalition, Manitoba Health Coalition, Ontario Health Coalition, Council of Canadians, representatives from other provinces with expertise in what is happening in their health care systems, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and mental health advocacy organizations, Indigenous organizations, patient advocates, doctors with expertise in pharmaceuticals and pharmacare, experts on laboratory privatization, health professionals from across Canada, union leaders and care workers from health are unions across the country, and others. _
* 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Lunch (provided on site without cost to participants)
* 2:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. Workshops (see below for details)
* 4 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Closing plenary
Quick briefing about plans for the rallies and car cavalcades the next day.
* 8 p.m. – 11 p.m. Bonfire on the front lawn, close to the beach
Tuesday July 22 – Rallies outside the Premiers’ Meeting, Car cavalcade, Roadside action on Highway 60, Leafletting
* 12 – 2:30 p.m. Car Cavalcade & Rallies – Gather outside the parking lot of the Hidden Valley Resort and be ready to leave at 12 p.m. Marshalls will show you where to line up cars and buses. We will make a car/bus cavalcade up the hill then stop and rally outside Deerhurst (shortly after 12 p.m.) where the Council of the Federation is meeting, then car cavalcade down Highway 60, through Huntsville, and back up Highway 11 to final very visible rally at corner of Highway 11 & Highway 60. For buses and cars planning time to leave to go home, we will be finished between 2 and 2:30 p.m.
Details and Registration
_Please register by filling out the registration form attached as a document and below in this email. Then, email it to info@ontariohc.ca._
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 