(May 14, 2025)<\/p>\n
By: Emily Tayler, CHCH News<\/p>\n
Around 150 healthcare workers from across Ontario gathered at Queen\u2019s Park Wednesday protesting the closure of urgent care centres.<\/p>\n
They are demanding the Ford government to take action and stop the closure of emergency departments, including in Port Colborne and Fort Erie.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo more closures!,\u201d said Heather Kelley, who works at the Fort Erie Healthcare SOS. \u201cLet\u2019s take care of the people first, then we\u2019ll arrange how are we going to take care of the people in each area.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUrgent care and emergency room closures are hurting Ontario patients\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s the message 150 healthcare workers, led by the Ontario Health Coalition, brought to Queen\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n
The coalition says in 2024, there were 1,117 times that emergency rooms across the province had to shut their doors.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an issue that hits close to home in Fort Erie and Port Colborne, where the urgent care centres are already operating on reduced hours, and are slated to close fully in 2028, when the new South Niagara Hospital is built.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Port. Colborne are really frightened of what\u2019s going to happen if the decision is not reversed,\u201d said Barbara Butters, the co-chair at the Port Colborne Health Coalition. \u201cIf the urgent care centre closes, we\u2019re going to be isolated and denied care in a way that we\u2019ve never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local Niagara Region MPPs Jeff Burch and Wayne Gates posed the same questions to Ontario\u2019s Health Minister in Wednesday\u2019s question period.<\/p>\n
\u201cA busload of Fort Erie residents are here today to ask this government why they\u2019ll spend $9.4 billion \u2013 billion \u2013 on private, for-profit nursing agencies, while refusing to invest the $10.4 million needed to keep the Douglas Memorial Urgent Care Centre doors open 24\/7,\u201d said Gates.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly in an NDP alternate reality is a 30 per cent increase to a healthcare budget be characterized as a \u2018cut\u2019,\u201d said Sylvia Jones, the Ontario Health Minister. \u201cWe are adding 600 hospital beds in the Niagara Region because of those investments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones was referring to the new Niagara Falls hospital set to finish construction in 2028, and the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital expected to open its doors in the fall.<\/p>\n
However, advocates say it\u2019s still too far for small town residents to travel for care, many of which don\u2019t have a family doctor.<\/p>\n
The opposition is looking to see more dollars going to healthcare in the provincial budget, which is set to be unveiled Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see a budget tomorrow that commits real dollars to keeping those emergency room doors and urgent care doors open,\u201d said Marit Stiles, the NDP leader of Ontario.<\/p>\n
Healthcare is something people will be watching closely for when the budget is unveiled Thursday at Queen\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n