SAULT STE. MARIE, ON – Although Sault Ste. Marie’s population is aging, Ontario’s Conservative government is planning multiple years of deep budget cuts to the area hospitals.
“What’s coming will be bigger because the cuts compound,” says Michael Hurley, the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU).
Hurley will hold a media conference at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 21, 2019, at Centennial Library – Program Room, 50 East Street, Sault Ste. Marie.
He will release projected provincial funding shortfalls for the Sault Ste. Marie area hospitals based on Conservative fiscal plans to 2023.
The Conservative’s April 2019 budget cut hospital operating costs in real terms by
3 per cent. Those cuts build to 15 per cent by 2023.
Over the next two decades, the share of seniors in the Sault Ste. Marie population is projected at between 30 and 35 per cent.
The demographic indicator is that Sault Ste. Marie’s senior population is increasing. There will be more people using the health system – and hospitals in particular – not fewer. Although the Premier has said his Conservative government will end hallway health care within a year, Sault Ste. Marie’s hospital patients will face increasing overcrowding and care in hospital corridors. But it doesn’t stop there because these cuts are projected to continue to 2023.
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Michael Hurley, President, OCHU/CUPE, 416-884-0770
Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications, 416-559-9300, [email protected]
COPE491/EW
