![](\"https:\/\/communities-wcmimages-cache.prod.postmedia.digital\/images?url=https:\/\/nexus.prod.postmedia.digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/0410-sm-a2-health.jpg&w=840&h=751\")
<\/p>\nApril 9, 2019 | Last Updated: April 9, 2019 3:49 PM EDT<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
TIMMINS \u2014 The prospect of the Ontario Conservatives ramming through legislation in order to introduce privatized health care in Ontario was a grave concern to those who attended a town hall style meeting at the Timmins Museum Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n The meeting, which was attended by about 50 people, was hosted by the Ontario Health Coalition.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are holding scores of meetings across the province \u2026 There\u2019s tremendous anger and concern about Bill 74 and what it will do to health care,\u201d said Doug Allan, board member with the Ontario Health Coalition.<\/span><\/p>\n Allan said the problems with the health-care system in Ontario exist largely because of capacity issues stemming from the fact the government here spends about $400 per person less on hospitals, $500 less per person on health-care as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe result of this is predictable,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have overflowing hospitals; we have seen increases in the wait list for long-term care from 25,000 to 35,000 people in just two years alone.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll of this requires capacity and that\u2019s what people thought they were voting for when Doug Ford promised to end hallway health care. Instead, of getting a commitment to improve capacity, we are getting a commitment to privatize health care.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While Ford hasn\u2019t actually announced plans to privatize health-care, Allan said the proposed massive restructuring to health care suggests that is the direction the government is moving.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere are tremendous powers that have been given to the minister and to the new super agency to restructure health care and to create a new form of health-care organization. All of this permits in multiple, multiple ways privatization of our health-care services. This is a very serious concern that we have.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe minister would be given, if this bill is passed \u2026 huge powers to restructure health care, with almost no public accountability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Allan said the Ford government revealed its intention to restructure Ontario\u2019s health\u2013care system only after it was elected and provided a limited opportunity for the public to offer feedback.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe got two days of rushed consultations and definitely with very clear signs they\u2019re embarrassed about what they\u2019re doing and they want to talk about it as little as possible,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFifteen hundred people applied for standing in the public hearings; 30 people got in. Seven thousand people then wrote in their concerns about Bill 74. Seven thousand? Are those going to be read? I doubt it very much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n MPP Gilles Bisson said it is a \u201ctravesty\u201d that a bill that will have widespread impact on health care is pushed through with little opportunity for input from the public or people who work in the industry.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis government ran without a platform,\u201d said Bisson. \u201cAt no time did they tell anybody in Ontario they were planning to make a major overhaul of the health-care system which includes losing local control to larger entities, whatever they may be, and privatization.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe very least this government should have done to respect this thing we call democracy. They should have sent that bill on the road for two or three weeks. It should have been in Dryden, it should have been in Thunder Bay, in Timmins and Cornwall, and different places, so that the public and those who work in our health-care system, those who understand the system, from the hospitals to the home services to long-term care could have gone and said, \u2018Here\u2019s what you got right, here\u2019s what you got wrong,\u2019 and at least if they\u2019re going to do a reform of the health-care system, you do it knowing what the pitfalls are \u2026 at least try to make it work.<\/span><\/p>\n