On Tuesday, February 10, OPSEU/SEFPO members joined hundreds of workers and community allies on Parliament Hill to call on the government to uphold the Canada Health Act and protect access to public health care across the country.
The rally brought together unions, health care workers, and community allies who were in Ottawa for the Canadian Health Coalition Lobby. Workers spent three days engaging with parliamentarians, pushing back against privatization and demanding strong, publicly funded health care for all.
Recent attacks on public health care across the country represent a sobering shift away from the very foundation our public health care system was founded on: a system where access was based on need rather than ability.
Alberta’s Bill 11 opens the door to American private health insurance companies while creating a legal framework for a two-tier system. In Ontario, our public hospitals have spent over $9.2 billion on for-profit staffing agencies over ten years while for-profit clinics thrive charging patients thousands for basic care.
OPSEU/SEFPO represents over 200,000 workers across Ontario, 60,000 of them in health care. We will not stay silent as our public health care is sold off to the highest bidder.
