OTTAWA – In an interview with Dougall Media, Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois said people won’t see the impact of the 2024 provincial budget until the numbers are distilled into a dollar figure that represents the "number of people it's supposed to serve or the number of organizations that are going to be funded by a particular amount.”
Kevin Holland, MPP for Thunder Bay-Atikokan, is thrilled over the Ontario budget. He said the budget recognized a potential wealth of opportunities Northwestern Ontario can provide to the province.
“I think the 2024 budget, there's a lot of good news in it for Northwestern Ontario in particular our riding and the region. So, there are a lot of initiatives to be addressed and some of the opportunities that exist in the riding. So, generally, I'm pretty happy with what we're seeing for Northwestern Ontario here,” said Holland.
Even though she said she is happy to see funding go into the healthcare sector, Vaugeois is concerned about how much taxpayer money is being distributed to for-profit companies.
Vaugeois explained, “nursing agencies are taking a huge chunk out of healthcare dollars. For-profit surgical centres receive two to three times the standard OHIP rates. Those come out of public dollars. We know that there are for-profit clinics now popping up all over the place.
“And, because there's such a shortage of family doctors in primary care, there's so little available for people. There's a lot of pressure to go to these private clinics and the fees are hovering around $400 a year per person,”
She reflected on the pandemic where the province saw a mass exodus of public front-line workers into the private sector as a result of Bill 124.
Since then, the bill has been rescinded and the province will owe back pay to the healthcare staff and education workers who were affected.
However, for Vaugeois, “the damage is already done.” Private organizations have siphoning off the majority of the front-line workers and “the government's doing nothing to stop that.
“There's a lot of draw for people to say, OK, I'm going to let go of this full-time job at the hospital where we're understaffed and I'm just going to go work for an agency. I won't get my benefits anymore, but I'll probably get a higher rate of pay, and I don't have to work hard hours,” stated Vaugeois.
Holland said that Vaugeois regurgitates the same NDP narrative, stating that the NDP arguments on the budget are spoken with the “lack of another argument.”
Holland stated Northwestern Ontario does not have for-profit agencies.
He also pointed out that in 2022, the province provided over $30 million in funding to the Thunder Bay Regional Hospital and St. Joseph’s Care Group.
“The investments we've been making as a government into health care are enormous. It’s the single largest investment in health care of any government in the history of the province,” said Holland.
As for Vaugeois's statement of public health-care workers fleeing for the private sector, Holland finds no evidence to suggest the region is losing any front-line workers.
Holland said: “That simply is not the case. Speaking with the CEO of Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, they've indicated to me that the attrition rate has been reduced dramatically and nurse vacancies, for example, are being filled without a single agency nurse being utilized.
“Further to that, they're telling me that with the spring hires this year, the nursing complement at the hospital will be at or very near full complement, so the investments that we're making to attract and retain healthcare professionals into the public system are working and these are the words that I'm hearing from officials that it's going to be regional.”
The province expects to spend $546 million over three years to lure 600,000 people to primary health care through its expanded interprofessional primary care teams. However, those figures are province-wide.
In Northern Ontario, the Ford government is keeping the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant neutral. In 2023, the province invested $61 million over the next three years. This year, the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant will receive $50 million over three years to recruit and retain healthcare workers.
Furthermore, the province will also commit $94 million over three years for programs that provide culturally responsive care tailored to the needs of these communities.
