‘How come we don’t count?’: Port Colborne advocates demand reversal of urgent care cuts

Posted: May 23, 2025

(May 23, 2025) By: Rose Lamberti, Port Colborne Leader

Health care advocates from Port Colborne travelled to Toronto to protest proposed urgent care closures, warning Queen’s Park that Niagara communities are being abandoned by the province’s health-care system.

Port Colborne health-care advocates returned from Queen’s Park last week frustrated by what they described as vague answers and a lack of urgency from the provincial government over proposed urgent care closures in Port Colborne and Fort Erie.

“The answers we got were in my opinion, condescending,” said Niagara Health Coalition chair, Sue Hotte. “The questions (from opposition MPPs) we’re really good, and they were pointed. The answers (from governing party MPPs) were questionable.”

Residents and advocates met with opposition MPPs, rallied outside the legislature, and filled the public gallery during Question Period in protest, as part of a provincewide day of action on May 14.

Organized by Niagara Health Coalition, the trip served as a way for advocates to continue their fight demanding the province reverse Niagara Health’s proposed long-term plan.

“There was a lot of lobbying prior to the meeting,” said Hotte. “We were able to ask questions and explain what the situation is, what’s happening in our communities because of this reduction in services.”

The proposed plan would close urgent care services in Port Colborne and Fort Erie.

Port Colborne resident and former city and regional councillor Barbara Butters, who spoke at a press briefing after question period, said the potential closure of her city’s urgent care centre would be devastating for a community that already faces barriers accessing care.

“We’re a town of about 20,000 people, approximately 10,000 of those don’t have a family doctor,” she told the media. “Our urgent care is their first and only way to get any kind of health care.”

Butters said residents face lengthy wait times at the nearest emergency department in Welland, which is roughly 12 kilometres away. For those without access to care, such as seniors or single parents, the trip is often unattainable.

“Every single morning, there is a lineup outside the urgent care doors for people looking for care,” she said. “If that urgent care closes, we’re going to be isolated and denied care in a way that we’ve never experienced in our lives.”

The closures have drawn criticism for what advocates say is an inequitable approach to health-care delivery that impacts smaller communities most.

“We are being treated like second-class citizens,” said Betty Konc, former acting mayor of Wainfleet and a Port Colborne resident. “Those with well-paying jobs at the head of (Niagara Health) think closing the urgent care is a cost saving measure, which is patently not true.”

Konc said the urgent care centres in Port Colborne and Fort Erie help lessen pressure on other emergency departments by offering a first point of care for those without a family doctor. Without them, she warned, local hospitals will face longer wait times and strain staff.

“We are trying to make it clear to all levels that closing our urgent care is a slap in the face to us in the southern tier,” Konc said.

At Queen’s Park, opposition MPPs raised concerns about health care cuts in Niagara and across the province. Hotte said many questions were met with what she called “questionable” responses from Health Minister Sylvia Jones.

“One of the questions dealt with access to care, and the minister said, ‘well you know, we’re getting 600 new beds,’” Hotte said. “I’m not too sure if she means physical beds, (but) certainly not getting an extra 600 beds.”

Hotte said that the vague answers from provincial leaders, including a claim that funding to hospitals across the province has increased, ignore the financial reality.

”(They) increased the funding by 0.5 per cent,” she said. “It will sound like a lot, but on the other hand, the rate of inflation is much higher than 0.5 per cent so the hospitals are operating in a deficit.”

At the conference, Butters said Niagara Health’s plan included closing two urgent care centres, and eliminating complex care beds in Port Colborne, cuts that she emphasizes cannot be offset by the new Niagara Falls hospital alone.

“If this Ford government thinks for one minute that we will stay silent or we will give up this fight, they got another thing coming,” Butters said.

The day concluded with a rally outside the legislature, with support from the Toronto Health Coalition. Hotte said participants left feeling energized, but emphasized that their fight doesn’t stop there.

“People felt really good about it,” she said. “We need to keep the pressure on the government, (we) have a dire situation in Niagara and in many communities where hospitals (will be) closed.”

For residents like Butters, the issue is about fairness and visibility in the provincial health-care system.

“I don’t understand, and I never will, how 40-odd thousand people in Fort Erie who live there, 20,000 in Port Colborne, Wainfleet probably another four or five thousand, how come we don’t count?” she said.

“We pay our taxes, we all try to make a good living for ourselves and take care of our communities, why don’t we count with this government?”

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