With Bill 74, the People’s Health Care Act, 2019, the Ford government has signaled its intention to create a new super health care agency called Ontario Health. The bill will would dissolve Ontario’s 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) and merging their duties with those of six other health care agencies, including Cancer Care Ontario, eHealth Ontario and Trillium Gift of Life Network.
This massive restructuring would affect approximately 10,500 workers, many of them represented by OPSEU. The union and its members have a large number of significant concerns, particularly when it comes to layoffs, privatization, governance, and preserving workplace rights achieved over many years through collective bargaining.
When the Harris Tories restructured hospitals in the 1990s, they created confusion and chaos at a huge cost to Ontario taxpayers: $3.9-billion versus just $800 million in “savings.” As frontline workers, we can’t afford to let a new batch of Conservatives take up where the previous Conservatives left off in destroying our health care system –so their rich private-sector pals can get their hands on public dollars through for-profit health care.
Tell your MPP you’re against the mess this super agency would make. Let Doug Ford know you’re against privatized health care. Inform Health Minister Christine Elliott that frontline workers must be widely consulted, as well as all stakeholders, and particularly local stakeholders, before any changes are made to the way health care is delivered in Ontario.