GREY-BRUCE – On Friday, May 26 and Saturday, May 27, people from all over Grey and Bruce counties participated in a grassroots referendum on public or private health care. They voted yes or no to the following question: Do you want your public hospital services to be privatized for for-profit hospitals and clinics?
Once the polls closed, the ballots were collected and taken for counting under the watchful eyes of scrutineers not previously associated with the referendum. The local results for Grey-Bruce (a combined total for paper ballots and online votes) showed a total of 9,889 votes cast. Of that number, an overwhelming 9,757 voted that they are not in favour of privatized health care, and 132 voted in favour.
On May 31, all of the ballots collected provincewide will be delivered to Queen’s Park and Ontario Health Coalition leadership will announce the total count for the province.
Grey-Bruce Health Coalition organizers said in a press release late Tuesday, May 30 that these percentages and numbers support the fact that an overwhelming majority of Ontarians do not want privatization of their health care services. They don’t want the public hospitals and services they have built and supported for many years to become for-profit facilities or closed.
They don’t support the idea of private clinics charging excessive extra fees for procedures formerly done in the public system.
The rationale the government gives for this switch to public health care is that there are not enough medical staff to operate public hospital facilities. Yet to a certain extent the provincial government has created that shortage with measures like Bill 124. Although declared unconstitutional by the courts, the government continues to appeal that decision.
The possibility of privatized health care was not discussed during the 2022 provincial election. Now the OHC has given Ontarians the opportunity to vote on this question, and over 95 per cent of those polled voted to support public health care.
