Regional News
October 22, 2008 05:54 PM
More than $1B in infrastructure promised to municipalities, including $50M to York Region, should be safe
Teresa Latchford and David Fleischer, Staff Writers
You can expect longer wait times at the hospital.
The hiring of 9,000 nurses is one of several provincial initiatives to have the brakes put on as the government cuts spending to reduce the impact of the economic slowdown, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced late yesterday as part of a fall economic statement.
The cuts spell trouble for Southlake Regional Health Care Centre, president and CEO Dan Carriere said.
“I see this as compromising long term health care for a short term problem,” Mr. Carriere said.
The hospital planned to increase its number of registered nurses by 34 per cent to keep up with growth in the region by 2016 according to its strategic plan.
But the funds needed to do so may not be available now.
“If we thought wait times were bad now, they are only going to get worse with this announcement,” Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees said. “This only spells bad news for York Region.”
Being one of the fastest growing regions in Ontario, demands on hospitals to keep up with growth is already a challenge and the province is $200 million behind other provinces when it comes to health care funding, Mr. Klees said.
This may have a ripple effect causing nursing and physician students to loose interest in the field since the job market is not steady, Mr. Carriere said. With a shortage already and no new positions opening, those trained will leave the province or not go into the educational programs at all.
“If you decrease the training pool we have less to choose from which creates competition between hospitals,” he explained. “That could become a case of have and have not which is not the goal of health care providers.”
The government projects a 0.1-per-cent growth in the economy and hopes to save $100 million by holding off on some expenditures for the time being, he said.
Planned nurse hirings and school repairs are going forward, just at a slower pace, Mr. Duncan said.
At a cost of $50 million, delaying the hiring of nurses by one year presents the biggest savings in the provincial plan.
That didn’t impress the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, which says Ontarians are already short of health care professionals.
“People right across this province depend on nurses for the health care they need and deserve. This announcement is a huge letdown,” association executive director Doris Grinspun said.
“These 9,000 nurses weren’t a bonus, we needed them now, just to keep things going,” communications director Marion Zych said.
The nursing cuts could take a toll on local health care, which is already overtaxed and underfunded.
Plans for a Vaughan hospital are still in the air and the expansion of Markham Stoufville Hospital took a hit earlier this year when the Public Infrastructure Renewal Ministry decided to spread out its funding, pushing the opening of the expansion back to 2014 or 2015.
The government projects taking in $180 million less than expected as fewer home sales hurt land transfer tax income. Similarly, consumers scared away from the gas pumps will cost the provincial coffers $65 million.
“It is not ‘business as usual’ in Ontario,” Mr. Duncan told the legislature.
While part of the recent federal election debate focussed on whether a deficit was permissible in light of recession fears, Mr. Duncan warned Ontario is likely to go $500 million in the red this year.
“We’re going to do everything we can to find new money for existing programs. But it won’t be as much as we had originally anticipated,” Premier Dalton McGuinty said ahead of the statement.
“That’s going to create some real challenges. I don’t want to pretend otherwise. And I’m asking Ontarians ... to work with us through this challenging time.”
More than $1 billion in infrastructure promised to municipalities, including more than $50 million for York Region, should be safe.
The premier has downplayed hopes in recent months, noting that the infrastructure fund was a one-time event and saying people should not expect radical changes from a long-awaited report on what services municipalities should fund and which ones should be provincial.
Mr. McGuinty also said civil servants will be safe from cuts though the province hopes unions will be understanding as agreements come due in the coming year.
—With files from the Toronto Star