Former Mayor Larry Di Ianni and Mr. Ecklund's daughter Erika

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LARRY'S CORNER- Hamilton's Former Mayor Speaks

former Mayor of Hamilton, Larry Di IanniHealthcare and Hamilton Politics

By Larry Di Ianni
(posted April 21, 2009)

I note that the Hamilton Health Coalition is sponsoring a rally to protest hospital cuts. The chosen site is the office of our Mountain MPP, Sophia Aggelonitis. When I saw this, I wondered what kinds of cuts are being contemplated to motivate a ‘protest’ rally. I was also curious about the sponsoring group and its motivations.

To be sure, healthcare is deservedly uppermost in Hamiltonians’ minds. To be equally sure, we don’t want to see the erosion of health care services to negatively affect the quality we have come to expect of our civic hospitals. The recent spate of C difficile outbreaks is particularly disturbing. But to be precise about matters, the current provincial government has done a lot to reverse the Harris cuts to healthcare and has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into our hospitals in order to upgrade services for the residents of this city. Why, then, are we taking to the streets to protest the good things the province has done?

Perhaps the answer lies in part on the nature of the rally’s sponsoring group. When I sought information on the Hamilton Health Coalition, the website pointed me in the direction of the Ontario Health Coalition and the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union which represents over 20,000 health care workers in the province. OPSEU’s full agenda, then, is to protect health care thorough the protection of its employees. And what is OPSEU so angry about this time? It is that the McGuinty government, in this era of fiscal austerity brought on by the economic downturn, has indicated that the increase for Health care in the provincial budget is going to be 2.1% more than it was last year as opposed to the 2.4% it received in the last budget. So, the protests right across the province are over a .3% decrease to the increase. Sounds confusing? Let me put it more simply: Health care will get more money, but not as much as it got last year; and not as much as Health care groups want.

Maybe this protest will be effective. We certainly wish OPSEU well. However, if they are successful, where might the money come from? Education? Transfers to cities? Transportation? Law enforcement? OPSEU may be playing a dangerous game by advocating for only one sector while the government has to balance the needs of all sectors under its jurisdiction.

As well, if memory serves me right, the McGuinty government has been more generous to this city than its predecessor government ever was. Just recently we received $16.5M for Social Services to help keep taxes down while maintaining programs for the needy. This on top of close to $50M for infrastructure, $8.8 for school renewal, $14.2M for Mohawk College renewal and programs, $30M to clean up Randle’s Reef, $7M for the Lister Block and downtown renewal, $30M for public transportation improvements, and major rebuilding programs for the General and Henderson hospitals totalling in the hundreds of millions.

OPSEU is a legitimate public pressure advocacy group. But to be fair and balanced, it really should protest with a wee hint of a smile on its face, and more than a bit of a thank you to the McGuinty government for having done a lot of good for the city of Hamilton in the past few years. What are the chances of that happening?

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