![](\"https:\/\/communities-wcmimages-cache.prod.postmedia.digital\/images?url=https:\/\/nexus.prod.postmedia.digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/TD.Ontario-Health-Coalition.jpg&w=840&h=630\")
<\/p>\nThe public is being kept in the dark about changes coming to Ontario\u2019s health care, says the Timmins organizer of a town-hall style meeting being held at the museum this Saturday.<\/p>\n
April 3, 2019 | Last Updated: April 3, 2019 6:33 PM EDT<\/p>\n
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The public is being kept in the dark about changes coming to Ontario\u2019s health care, says the Timmins organizer of a town-hall style meeting being held at the museum this Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Ontario Health Coalition is hosting about 40 town hall meeting across the province leading up to a massive demonstration planned at Queen\u2019s Park at the end of this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is to get as many people as we can speaking out and hopefully Mr. (Doug) Ford will see we have to have more consultations with this,\u201d said Ed Stecewicz, a Timmins resident who made arrangements for the coalition to host one of those town hall meetings here.<\/p>\n
The meeting at the Timmins Museum begins at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
Everyone is welcome to attend.<\/p>\n
Stecewicz expects many of those in attendance will be people from different health-care fields as well as local residents who want to keep Ontario\u2019s health-care system public.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe focus is on letting people know what is coming down with Mr. Ford\u2019s health-care bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
A two-day series of public hearings regarding the legislation was carried out earlier this week in Toronto \u2014 hardly enough consultation given what is being proposed, Stecewicz added.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, he said, when major changes to provincial services are being proposed, governments ask for input, with panels travelling around province and gathering feedback considered in final decisions.<\/p>\n
That hasn\u2019t happened in this instance, said Stecewicz.<\/p>\n
For the town hall meeting taking place this Saturday, he said, \u201cThey are going to have a panel with one or two people from Ontario Health Coalition\u201d along with MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP \u2014 Timmins) and possibly some other local health officials.<\/p>\n
A key concern for the health coalition is Bill 74, which folds multiple health agencies, including the North East Local Health Integration Network or NE LHIN, into one super-agency.<\/p>\n
Stecewicz said the new legislation also paves the way for more privatization.<\/p>\n
Ontario coalitions contend this will enable super-agency appointees to transfer public and non-profit health-care services to for-profit companies.<\/p>\n