For immediate release
March 8, 2007

MPPs Call on Health Minister to Raise Provincial Funding
To Protect Most Vulnerable Patients from Cutbacks

DURHAM REGION – Durham MPPs Christine Elliott (Whitby-Ajax); Jerry Ouellette (Oshawa) and John O’Toole (Durham) are calling on Ontario’s Health Minister to stand up for the vulnerable individuals who will be hardest hit by provincial under-funding at Lakeridge Health.

Media reports on cutting $3 million from treatment programs in addiction and mental health services have described the choices as “heartbreaking.”

“Clearly, the decisions the provincial government is forcing on Lakeridge are unacceptable,” said Whitby-Ajax MPP Christine Elliott.  “It is unconscionable for the provincial government to expect Lakeridge to balance its books at the expense of vulnerable individuals facing mental illness and addictions.”

“These clients are becoming victims twice,” said Jerry Ouellette, MPP for Oshawa, “first, by their illness and then by the provincial healthcare bureaucracy.”

The Durham MPPs have repeated their call for the provincial government to raise funding to the provincial average.  “We live in one of the fastest-growing Regions in Ontario,” said Durham MPP John O’Toole. “If we received a level of funding closer to the provincial average, hospitals wouldn’t be facing reduced levels of service.”

The MPPs added that they support the growing grassroots campaign to achieve fair funding for Durham Region hospitals.  Petitions, town hall meetings, letters to the editor, e-mails and letters to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care will all help get the message across, said MPPs Christine Elliott, John O’Toole and Jerry Oullette.

The MPPs will continue to do whatever it takes to stand up for Durham’s hospitals and they urge Ontario’s Minister of Health and Long-Term Care to do the same.

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For more information contact:
Christine Elliott, M.P.P
Whitby-Ajax
416.325.1331