Have you wondered how the local candidates in the provincial election plan to deal with the public health-care system and issues of access?
Since Ontario Progressive Conservative leader and then-premier Doug Ford called an early election on Jan. 28, candidates have been lining up to offer their visions for the riding of York-Simcoe before voters go to the polls on Feb. 27 — about 15 months ahead of schedule.
As part of our Ontario Votes election coverage, BradfordToday attempted to ask all eight registered candidates to explain how they would tackle four key issues in the riding: traffic and transportation, lack of access to health care, the need for more spaces in schools, and growth management — including how they would handle the housing crisis while also addressing impacts on the environment and agriculture.
In order of the number of votes received in the riding for each party during the 2022 election, this is how candidates responded to the question: If elected, how would you address health care and the lack of access?
Fatima Chaudhry — Ontario Liberal Party
Too many York-Simcoe residents are struggling to find a family doctor or waiting hours in the ER. I will fight to increase health-care funding, bring more doctors and nurses to our region, and expand hospital capacity. Unlike Doug Ford’s (Progressive) Conservatives, who are pushing for privatization, I will work to strengthen our public health-care system so that no one has to pay out-of-pocket for essential care.
Justin Graham — Ontario New Democratic Party
I feel the medical and school systems have been extremely underfunded, leading to burnout and lack of retention as well as lack of interest from community members entering post secondary educational institutions. The under-funding is undermining our social, health-care and education systems, to the benefits of private profiteers in an effort to capitalize on what I believe are human rights.
Brent Fellman — New Blue Party of Ontario
It’s about the personnel. We need to cut down on administration at the top. I know a lot of the other parties want more doctors, and of course we want more doctors, and we want more nurses. They are the ones who provide front-line care, but how are you going to pay for it.
Either we need to really grow our economy, cut all the waste that we have, or we need to really look at the administration. It’s pretty top-heavy right now. There are a lot of levels in the health-care system. Once you’ve addressed that, then you hire more doctors, more nurses.
One policy that we have is all those nurses that were fired due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, be rehired. You have people that are highly experienced, some who have served 25 years. Bringing them back into the system would be very beneficial.
Sean Conroy — Ontario Libertarian Party
I feel a lot of the issue lays with the proper usage of funds. The amount of money that is robbed from the actual system. The bloated middle bureaucracy takes away from the ability to open up health-care centres, to fund doctors, to even fund hospitals appropriately — that’s the reason why I believe there’s so much hallway medicine occurring.
I also believe the provincial government has a responsibility to open up third-party providers and allow OHIP (the Ontario Health Insurance Plan) to be used with these third-party providers to alleviate some of the strain on the system until something more appropriate can be done internally — something just to bridge that gap just until things get fixed.
It’s no fair to ask people to pay for their own health care ... because it’s a shortfall of the government and their ability to provide that service.
Franco Colavecchia — Ontario Moderate Party
That issue will never be resolved by Conservative/Liberal coalition because this is an issue of ideology/lifestyle. The only solution is to adopt the ideology and lifestyle promoted by the Ontario Moderate Party.
Editor's note: Some responses have been edited for length. Caroline Mulroney (Ontario Progressive Conservative Party), Jennifer Baron (Green Party of Ontario) and Alana Hollander (Ontario Party) have not responded to requests for comment as of the publication of this article.