Mr. Premier:
Ontarians watched you recently at a public speaking engagement where a bee landed on your face, then you drew the winged assailant in with a breath. As a person who has had adverse reactions to bee stings, I was relieved that you escaped the incident without a life-threatening result. Are you OK? Listening to others around me during the following days, some did not share the same relief. Their absence of empathy, although disappointing, does not come as a complete surprise, sir. Please indulge me.
Do you remember the days when you, me, and for that matter, the citizens and visitors in the Province of Ontario enjoyed a healthcare delivery system that has done just that: delivered? For decades. Yes, there could always be improvements, but for the most part, we, including you, received the care and support we needed on our first, worst and sometimes last days. That is not the case today. Unless I am missing the thrust of you and your health minister, you are working behind the scenes to privatize our care after letting it decay to a fragile condition that is failing the public.
For you, not much has changed. You are fortunate to come from a financially rich and successful lineage. You are at the top of the food chain: the “have” society as opposed to residents from the “have not” portion. In addition, in your position as Premier, your residence and the locations you frequent are assigned an ambulance tucked out of sight. You are shadowed by a plain-clothed contingent of Ontario Provincial Police to protect you, as someone with your standing deserves. Those privileges give you instant attention and care far beyond what other citizens receive.
Yet, with that kind of privilege, you have still managed to damage the organ in your body that, for others, expresses love and dispenses compassion. Your heart has failed somewhere along the way. At a time when you, the leader, need to be recognized for excellence, you and your party have failed throngs of nurses, doctors, clerks, technicians, paramedics, dispatchers, and the list should go on that continue to serve the public in the face of insurmountable pressure. The ultimate victims of this medical distress are your constituents, who are paying the price far beyond what they should have to shoulder physically, emotionally and financially.
Your actions or inactions are unleashing devastating consequences on Ontarians. Closing emergency rooms experiencing record volumes of patients, limiting long-term healthcare beds with our demonstrably aging population, causing a backlog in hospitals forcing paramedics to congregate in the back halls, and being unable to respond promptly to critical patients, is just a short list of the conditions harming the public.
Compounding the suffering from all sides, my suspicion is not unique. Somewhere in your post-political future, you will reap the rewards of privatization if your plans unfold in your favour. Your thinly veiled scheme to pay for services at a premium to supply staff to an already established infrastructure for healthcare is beyond the pale. Your edict: c. 12 - Bill 124 restricting in this circumstance healthcare workers’ wages at a time when the stakes have never been higher is set on a path to collapse healthcare as a whole. Mr. Premier, you still have an opportunity before it is too late.
Critics are pointing out so many solutions. I marvel at the denial and deflection you offer in return. I am left wondering how much and how long it will take to repair the damage done to Ontarians. Or if healthcare will ever recover? The effects of your sabotage have and will extend well beyond the lives of many. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to those affected by your actions, citizens and professionals. Again, I am happy that you did not require emergency care in response to your recent experience.