Toronto Star

Opposition slams health-care cuts

Minister argues reduced units with larger staff is easier to mobilize

- ROB FERGUSON

Moves to reduce the number of health units across the province will hinder efforts to monitor outbreaks, New Democrats warned, as opposition parties took a deeper look at the Ontario government’s spring budget that also signalled a slowdown on high-speed rail.

“There’s no way you can take 35 health agencies and whittle them down to 10 and make things better,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Monday of the consolidat­ion aimed at saving $200 million over the next three years.

Health Minister Christine Elliott defended the change outlined in last Thursday’s budget, saying it was recommende­d to the previous Liberal government and will help modernize a system in which some smaller health units have had difficulty recruiting employees.

“We want to make sure that our health units are going to be appropriat­ely staffed and are going to be able to respond quickly in cases of emergency,” she told the Legislatur­e, maintainin­g a smaller number of health units with bigger staffs will be easier to mobilize.

“There are situations in Ontario where we’re having outbreaks of things like tuberculos­is, measles, people not getting their children vaccinated.

“That is an important role that public health will continue to play.”

The budget cut funding for more than a dozen government ministries including environmen­t, Indigenous Affairs and natural resources.

It also “paused” capital funding for high-speed rail that the previous Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne proposed would reach London in 2025 and Windsor in 2031 at a cost of $60 million per kilometre.

“A lot of the people in southweste­rn Ontario were telling me over the weekend they’re worried the project is dead,” said Green Leader Mike Schreiner, whose Guelph riding was slated to get a stop on the 350-kilometre line Wynne kick-started in 2017 with an environmen­tal assessment.

Citing concerns in rural areas that high-speed rail, with trains travelling on new and existing track at speeds of 250 km/h, would eliminate “countless hectares of prime agricultur­al land in one of Canada’s richest farm belts” and restrict access to homes and fields, the Progressiv­e Conservati­ve government will instead look at ways to boost train speeds and service levels on existing lines.

Ways to improve bus services will also be considered as the government pledges to unveil a transporta­tion plan for southweste­rn Ontario by next fall.

The Liberals had touted highspeed rail as a game-changer for southweste­rn Ontario, which is home to seven million people and 60 per cent of the provincial economy. The line would have made it possible, for example, for people from London to become daily commuters into Toronto with a 73-minute trip.

Cabinet ministers cautioned against reading too much into opposition criticisms of budget cuts in their department­s, although interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said line-by-line details won’t be available to the public until government spending estimates are released later this month.

With his envelope being reduced about one-third, Environmen­t Minister Rod Phillips said “a little over 95 per cent of that” was from the summer eliminatio­n of the previous Liberal government’s cap-andtrade program and ending the Drive Clean vehicle emissions testing program.

“We’re making sure that we’re protecting inspection­s and health and safety,” Phillips said. “But yes, over time, we will find efficienci­es.”

Officials said the reduction of almost half in the Indigenous Affairs budget does not reflect the value of land claim settlement­s that may be reached this year and a trimming of more than $100 million in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry reflects only base funding for forest fire fighting — a cost that can rise substantia­lly depending on the severity of the upcoming summer forest fire season.

 ?? CHRIS YOUNG THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO ?? Health Minister Christine Elliott says reducing the number of health units will help modernize a system in which some smaller health units have had difficulty recruiting employees.
CHRIS YOUNG THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO Health Minister Christine Elliott says reducing the number of health units will help modernize a system in which some smaller health units have had difficulty recruiting employees.

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