More than a hundred healthcare workers and advocates gathered outside the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville on July 22 to protest the privatization of healthcare across Canada.
The local resort is where Canada’s 13 Premiers and the Prime Minister are hosting the Council of the Federation.
Jason MacLean, chair of the Canadian Health Coalition, said they want to get the attention of the provincial and federal governments, as all provinces are in a “healthcare crisis.”
“Without a healthy population, we’re never going to have a healthy economy,” said MacLean. “What we’re really trying to put through to everybody is that we need universally accessible, publicly funded, publicly delivered health care. And that’s what’s needed here in Canada today.”
According to MacLean, over half of the surgeries in Ontario right now are being performed at private care clinics.
“It makes a weaker public sector and public services that are going forward are stopping because everybody’s going to the private healthcare,” he said.
Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition, said they do not want Canada to succumb to the pressures of the United States.
“We forge our new national identity in this international crisis. We have to forge a new national identity in keeping with our core values as Canadians,” said Mehra.
Erin Ariss, registered nurse and president of the Ontario Nurses Association, said the current working conditions of healthcare workers are a direct result of the Ford government and their conservative cuts and privatization.
“Since Ford became the premier in 2018, he has underfunded and cut every sector of health care in Ontario, and that’s a shame,” said Ariss.
She said Ford is spending their public dollars on 900 new private clinics and paying private for-profit staffing agencies billions of dollars instead of retaining and recruiting front-line staff.
“Healthcare is a basic human right,” she said.
