In support of the Queen’s Park Ontario Health Coalition Healthcare rally to be held on October 23rd, 2018 the Grey Bruce Labour Council will conduct an information picket in Kincardine on October 22nd, 2018. The picket will be held in front of MPP and Education Minister, Lisa Thompson’s office at 807 Queen St, Kincardine.

Present at the picket will be a number of Grey Bruce Labour Council Delegates and Labour Council Activist Day Guest of Honour, Ontario Nurses Association President, Vicki McKenna.

The public is of course invited to participate as depriving of funds for public healthcare is an issue for all people in Ontario. The picket is scheduled to commence at about 9:30 AM. Labour Council President, Kevin Smith, and Vicki McKenna will be arriving to the picket from a breakfast meeting of Labour leaders in our community. Smith states “that years of defunding, P3’s and broad attempts at privatization of healthcare in Ontario have profoundly hurt citizens of Ontario and catapulted dedicated frontline healthcare providers into a world of struggles to still provide care for Ontario patients with less and less in the way of resources”.

Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition points to the recent election of Doug Ford. “In the provincial election Doug Ford promised to “end hallway medicine”. That means opening more hospital beds and restoring services that have been cut. But Premier Doug Ford has surrounded himself with advisors who have a history of cutting services, closing and privatizing hospitals, cutting staff and bringing in privatized U.S.-style health care and user fees amounting to thousands of dollars for patients”.

Anna Morrison, Grey Bruce Labour Council VP, says “that if this is the advisory group that Ford has called in then there is no reason to believe that the Ford agenda is about improving publicly funded healthcare and relieving the huge burdens on frontline healthcare workers.

source: media release, Grey Bruce Labour Council