TORONTO - New Ontario Public Service Employees Union
(OPSEU) President Warren “Smokey” Thomas will make a submission
today to the Standing Committee on Social Policy on Bill 171 - the
Health Systems Improvement Act, 2006. Joining him will be the
union's new First Vice President-Treasurer, Patty Rout.
Thomas, a registered practical nurse from Kingston,
and Rout, a hospital laboratory technologist from Oshawa, were both
elected to their new positions April 20.
The OPSEU representatives will tell the Standing
Committee that the union’s concerns with the bill fall into four
main areas:
1. The accountability of the new Ontario Agency
for Health Protection and Promotion;
2. The plan to transfer of about 600 public
health lab workers out of the Ontario Public Service and into
the new agency;
3. The omission of a strong worker safety role
for the new agency; and
4. The broad definition of psychotherapy and its
sweeping implications for many public sector professions.
Bill 171 ignores key recommendations in Justice
Archie Campbell’s final report on SARS - including the need to adopt
the precautionary principle in health care settings, and to bring
worker health and safety into the new agency, the union says.
OPSEU represents 120,000 workers, including the 600
government employees affected by this bill, and about 30,000 health
care workers in all. These also include professionals working in
Ontario hospitals, mental health, long-term care facilities, public
health, community health, and ambulance workplaces.
Date: Tuesday April 24, 2007
Time: 5:00 pm.
Where: Committee Room 1, Queen's Park
