NDP Press release, May 11, 2018
Doug Ford and Kathleen Wynne's narrow vision of Ontario ends at the 401. After 15 years of Liberal government, Northern Ontario families are paying more and watching their infrastructure crumble. Doug Ford's only plan is to make deep cuts that will make a bad situation worse.
Bad for Northern highways: Wynne privatized highway winter road maintenance, resulting in poor service that has left these northern lifelines often impassible and dangerous. Doug Ford refuses to support Andrea Horwath's pledge to return winter road maintenance to public hands. Only the NDP will provide the North with reliable and safe winter road maintenance service.
Bad for Northern health care: Health officials in Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay have said that inadequate funding of their hospitals by Wynne “threatens basic financial survival.” Doug Ford's tax cuts for the rich leave a multi-billion-dollar hole in the budget that can only be filled with cuts to health care. Only the NDP has a plan to immediately provide hospitals with the funding they need to protect public health care, including $1.2 billion in new funding and 2,000 new hospital beds in this year alone.
Bad for Northern education: Under Kathleen Wynne's Liberals, 71 schools have closed across the North including in Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Timmins, North Bay, and Parry Sound. Doug Ford's reckless cuts would mean the closure of a staggering 780 schools across the province. Horwath's plan to place a moratorium on school closures will mean students can get the education they deserve in every region of the province.
