Health Care

The Right Honourable Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
House of Commons, Canada

OPEN LETTER RE: Ontario’s Health System at Risk

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Freeland,

As Ontario’s largest health care unions, CUPE, SEIU Healthcare, OPSEU/SEFPO, ONA, and Unifor, we write on behalf of 295,000 workers concerned that Premier Ford’s privatization plan is putting our members and the people they care for at risk.

OTTAWA – As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet gather in Hamilton for a three-day retreat, a broad coalition of unions and progressive groups says that implementing a comprehensive pharmacare program must be a top priority for the Liberal government. The cost-of-living crisis has significantly increased cost-related obstacles to Canadians’ access to prescription drugs, while high drug prices are draining billions of dollars from hospitals’ budgets.

An elderly man in Fredericton, N.B. died alone in a wheelchair. Another patient died while waiting for care after hours in a hospital emergency waiting room. A 76-year-old man suffered a heart attack waiting in the ER waiting room. An 88-year-old woman, who is blind, is put into a bed in a storage closet.

Then, an ambulance was called to a residence in Greater Moncton which was dispatched from Saint John, 1.5 hours away. The child’s lungs collapsed and had to be rushed to the nearest children’s hospital, the IWK in Halifax, N.S.

TORONTO- Unifor will continue to fight for public health care in the face of Ontario PC government’s latest steps into privatization.

“This is far from the first step of Ontario’s path toward private healthcare, but this must be where it ends,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “Public health care in Ontario is too important and we will not allow this government to bring us closer to an American-style for-profit system of health.”

TORONTO—The Ontario Minister of Health was briefed on Bill 124’s ill effects rippling across Ontario’s health care system, newly obtained ministerial briefing documents have revealed.

Ontario health care worker representatives joined with union leaders from Unifor, CUPE, SEIU Healthcare, ONA and OPSEU/ SEFPO to deliver an 'all we want for Christmas' holiday card that called on Premier Doug Ford to repeal Bill 124. 

Today, December 20, nurses represented by the Royal College of Nursing union across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are staging the largest strike in the history of the National Health Service.

Unifor expresses solidarity with striking nurses and with thousands of workers from many sectors taking strike action this month in the UK. The strikes to demand economic and social justice for all working people were initiated by rail workers and have continued to gain support across the country.

TORONTO – In a historic moment, Ontario’s five largest health care unions have joined forces, issuing an SOS appeal to Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones: your plan is failing – take action and adopt our solutions to stabilize Ontario’s crashing health care system today.

WINNIPEG—Unifor will fight for public health care after conservative Premier Heather Stefanson promised increased private sector delivery in the speech from the throne.

“Privatization means cutting corners and prioritizing profits over proper care,” said Lana Payne, Unifor National President. “Private health care might be popular among the PC’s elite donor class, but it is a non-starter with working people.”