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CALL-OUT: Municipal Council Motion to stop the Cuts, Eliminations, and Mergers of health care services

Posted: October 30, 2019

(October 30, 2019) — We are trying to pass a motion through all 444 municipalities in Ontario. It calls for the Ford government to halt the closures, mergers, and cuts to local health care services, particularly impacting Public Health Units, paramedic services and dispatch centres, as well as local hospitals and long-term care facilities. We are also trying to stop any attempts to privatize health care. The cuts offload costs to municipalities, forcing them to cut services or increase local taxes, so there is a broad consensus from the left to the right of the political spectrum against them. In addition there is overwhelming public support to protect our health care services.

The motion has passed unanimously in Lambton County and in the Town of Kingsville. It has also passed in Toronto and will be voted on in Peterborough, and in the Township of Prince in early November. Similarly, volunteers are working on moving the motion through Councils in Sault Ste. Marie, St. Joseph Island, Brampton, Caledon, Clarington, Cockburn Island, Cornwall, Durham, Hamilton, Kawartha Lakes, Kingston, Mississauga, Niagara, Oakville, Oshawa, Peel, Pickering, Sarnia, Scugog, Thunder Bay, Uxbridge and Whitby.

We are asking for your help in getting this motion passed in municipalities across the province. To help move this motion forward in your municipality, it is very simple! All you need to do is get in contact with your local councillor or mayor (preferably one that is progressive and supports public health care) and pass along the information regarding the motion and ask them if they will move it at your municipal council.  Let them know why we are passing this motion, why it is significant and crucial, and let them know that this is part of a cross-province initiative. Make sure to provide them with the motion and speaker’s notes (see attachments and more information below) and find out from them when they will be able to bring the motion forward.

Click on the links below to access 1) the motion, 2) the speakers’ notes that go with it either for your use if you want to do a deputation to Council on the day they are considering the motion or for any Councillors who are trying to get it passed, and 3) sources for the information contained in the clauses of the motion. For more background, you can click here to access our most updated Briefing Note with a comprehensive list of cuts, closures and amalgamations by the Doug Ford government to date.

If you can help push this forward, please let us know! Send us an email with the following information: your name, organization you represent (if applicable), phone number, best e-mail to reach you, and the name of the municipality or municipalities where you are helping to bring the motion forward to council. This will allow us to keep track of where the motion is being brought forward across the province. Our goal is to have as many of the 444 municipalities across the province pass this motion in order to mount maximum pressure on the provincial government to reverse cuts, closures and mergers of essential health care services. Together, we will save the services that save us!