FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE November 10, 2006
Municipal candidates
sign pledge to make health care a local issue
TORONTO – More
than 100 municipal candidates, in more than 20 Ontario
municipalities including Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa, have
signed a pledge to protect publicly financed and delivered
health care.
The pledge to support fully public health care, and list of
signatories, can be found at http://www.protecthealthcare.ca.
By signing the pledge, candidates recognize the importance
of local access to health care services, which could be
limited by the new local health care integration networks (LHINs);
the value of good health care jobs to the local community,
and the need to ensure that municipal contributions to
hospital infrastructure funding go only to publicly-owned
facilities.
The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) Canada, the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union (OPSEU) and the Canadian Union of
Public Employees (CUPE) sponsored the pledge.
The unions point out that many health care decisions are
made at the municipal level.
The four unions, representing about 200,000 Ontario health
care workers, say the Ontario government should stop all
further privatization of health care delivery, including all
planned privately financed and operated “P3” hospitals.
The unions say many independent reports, some of which can
be found at www.web.net/ohc show publicly financed health
care facilities are cheaper to build, more efficient, and
are safer for patients and staff than private or P3
facilities. The endorsers of this pledge understand public
health care is more cost effective and provides better
quality services than any private alternative.
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For
information please contact:
David Cox,
OPSEU 416-443-8888 x 8314
Barry Smith, SEIU 416-528-9116 (cell)
Sheree Bond, ONA 416-964-8833, ext. 2430, or (416)
986-8240 (cell)
Pat Daley, CUPE 416-616-6142 (cell)
