MPP cautiously optimistic about hospital funding

NDP health critic France Gélinas, MPP for Nickel Belt, said she is cautiously optimistic about additional funding secured by her party for small, rural and Northern hospitals.

“We listened to the people of this province who told us that they were concerned about Liberal budget cutbacks on local health-care services,” Gélinas said, in a press release. “We’ve secured some help for small hospitals squeezed by the Liberal budget.”

In an effort to make the budget fairer for people, New Democrats proposed $100 million to protect local health-care services threatened by the Liberal government’s decision to freeze community hospital budgets.

Under the NDP proposal, funding would have come from the new modest tax increase on those making more than $500,000.

In addition to moving forward with the fair tax proposal, the government is providing $20 million to small, rural and northern hospitals.

“New Democrats would have gone further – and we will continue to push for increased support of struggling hospitals and against the new hospital funding model,” Gélinas said. “But given the immediate crisis faced by many small, rural and northern hospitals, this $20-million fund is a step in the right direction.”

Posted by Arron Pickard