May 26th, 2023

Stiles encourages Ontarians to make their voices heard as healthcare privatization looms

LAKEFIELD – Ontario NDP Leader, Marit Stiles, visited Lakefield today to meet with local members of the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) who have been organizing with the Peterborough community to push back against Ford Conservatives’ healthcare privatization agenda.

“Ford’s Conservatives starved our public healthcare system and created a crisis,” Stiles said. “Then they opened the door for private, for-profit companies to make money while Ontarians are stuck waiting in a system that is falling apart.”

Stiles cast her ballot at an OHC polling station.

“Ontarians across the province are waiting hours in emergency rooms, months to get surgeries, and for years to even get a family doctor,” said Stiles. “Enough is enough.”

OHC is holding a citizens’ referendum to give people the opportunity to vote on healthcare privatization resulting from the government’s passing of Bill 60: Your Health Act, 2023. People can vote in person in one of the hundreds of polling stations set up across the province or online before Saturday, May 27.

“Millions of Ontarians will have their lives impacted by this legislation, and they deserve to have their voices heard. We do not stand for Ford’s unilateral decision to sell off our precious healthcare system,” said NDP Health critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt).

Gélinas and the Ontario NDP presented 74 amendments to Bill 60 that would have ensures practical solutions to keep health care public and wouldn’t leave Ontarians footing the bill for access to healthcare. Ford and his government chose to vote against every single amendment.

As the Official Opposition, Stiles and the NDP have continued to push back against Ford Conservatives’ privatization efforts both in the Legislature and in communities across Ontario.