Ambulance woes trace back to Harris

Re: Hospital delays ‘unacceptable’ for paramedics, July 12

The fact that paramedics are poised to wait for up to 13,000 hours this year and have “already spent 6,082 hours waiting to drop off patients in 2017” is indeed “terrible” and “unacceptable.”

Searching for the cause of this is complicated of course and several were mentioned. The major cause, I believe, was missed.

Mike Harris and his Progressive Conservative government of the 1990s downloaded ambulance services onto the regions in a heavy-handed and poorly managed attempt to cut provincial taxes. The cost was supposed to be offset by the province uploading other services. We now see that the result was the chaos we are now experiencing.

A second and more telling fact appeared in the article.

Niagara medical officer of health Dr. Valerie Jaeger said the volume of patients transferred by ambulance or walking into emergency has left health professionals questioning the validity of census data. “They’re asking ‘How many people actually live here,’” she said.

Now we all know that, in order to satisfy the demands of his more paranoid supporters, Stephen Harper and the federal Conservatives gutted the census legislation to the point where hospital administrations and others can’t plan for future needs. The highly skilled administrator of the census even resigned in protest.

Another total fiasco, among many, to satisfy the wrong-headed right-wing philosophy of lower taxes and less government.

Pick on the Liberals all you want, but the alternative in my opinion is far worse. Richard Murri Niagara Falls