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Kelly-Anne Orr, Unifor’s Assistant to the National Officers, warns the proposed Bill 60 legislation from the Ontario government will further push the health care system into crisis, rather than heal it.
Orr made her submission to the Ontario government’s Standing Committee on Social Policy on March 20, focusing on the province’s proposed “Your Health Act,” which aims to expand the privatization of hospital services to for-profit entities.
“This is a political choice that is not in the best interests of Ontarians or our health care system,” Orr said. “This government is going down a dangerous path. Health care workers, unions, community groups, and the media, have all warned of the downsides of privatized health care services.”
In her remarks, Orr said Bill 60 was tabled during an unprecedented time, when the health care system and health care workers have been stretched to the limit.
This legislation is not going to solve the problems this bill claims it will fix, such as reducing wait times for surgeries, medical procedures, and diagnostic imaging. It will exacerbate the crisis by starving the public health care system of resources.
There continues to be under-used operating rooms and testing capacity in our public hospitals that could improve access to surgeries and procedures, if the government chooses to do so.
All the while, Ontario continues to provide the lowest per capital funding for public hospitals and health care in Canada, she said.
Then, there is the issue of transparency and public accountability with this bill.
This legislation does not prevent the predatory practice of upselling and does not set out any standards regarding the upselling of services. This targets financially vulnerable Ontarians when receiving services from a for-profit, private clinic. It also means more competition for skilled workers across two different systems, when there’s already massive staff shortages
“With profit as a motive, the reliance on private clinics will create more inefficiencies in the health care system,” Orr said in her remarks.
“Profit motives inevitably lead to cost-cutting measures that could include reducing staff or other measures that impact the quality of care. Profit motives will also lead to Ontarians paying more through their tax dollars or through the upselling of services.”
Bill 60 also raises concerning questions around public accountability for service providers, including allowing the minister to appoint a director who may be any individual or entity – a notable departure from the current requirement for the director to be an employee of the Ministry.
“A third-party director would not be subject to the conflict of interest and ethics guidelines for public servants. They would not be subject to requirements related to financial disclosure or public access to information,” said Orr.
Further to its lack of transparency, this legislation also doesn’t contain provisions for public oversight by elected representatives, said Orr. For example, there are no measures related to public notices, requirements for Cabinet approval, or a notice period. In other words, this legislation will enable the rapid expansion of private clinics with very little oversight or public consultation.
There are solutions to addressing the staffing crisis and the backlog of surgeries and diagnostic procedures in the provinces, said Orr, including investing in staff recruitment and retention and maximizing the public hospital capacity across the system.
Privatization is not the answer, she continued. This legislation will allow this government to fast-track the approval of licenses for private clinics, while concentrating more decision-making power to less publicly accountable third-party individuals or entities.
“Bill 60 will bring significant changes to the province’s health care system by allowing private clinics to perform more services, while being able to do so with less public accountability and oversight compared to public hospitals,” said Orr.
“These measures will not strengthen our health care system, but will instead erode our public hospitals at the cost of Ontario patients and taxpayers.”
Read Unifor’s submission to the Standing Committee on Social Policy on Bill 60.
