Dear Dr. Douglas Mark: Christine Elliott, MPP, Whitby-Oshawa and PC Health Critic read your comment in the Globe and Mail "Wynne's spin on Ontario doctors not supported by the facts," dated January 19, 2015. She supports your position in this piece, and also prepared a submission defending doctors. I encourage you to read the attached letter to Kathleen Wynne.
Dear Premier Wynne: Work With Doctors
Universal access to high-quality health care is at the core of what it means to be
Canadian. But here’s the simple truth: Ontario’s health-care system is facing critical
challenges that are putting both quality and accessibility at risk. Over the coming years,
as our population ages, these challenges and the risks they pose will only become more
complex.
It is imperative that the Government of Ontario show leadership and innovation today so
that we can protect our health-care system tomorrow. Sadly, Kathleen Wynne and the
Liberals have failed Ontarians.
I was disappointed to learn about the state of negations between the Ontario Medical
Association and the Wynne government. In response to the government’s threats and a
refusal to listen, the OMA has been forced to walk away from the bargaining table. To
threaten primary care providers—the doctors Ontarians look to for quality care—is not
the way our government should negotiate.
Instead, the government should partner with front-line health care providers to identify
and implement innovative solutions that contain costs and ensure Ontarians have
access to the highest quality care possible. In fact, the OMA put forward such solutions,
but their proposals were flatly rejected by Ms. Wynne and her government.
Once again, Ms. Wynne and the Liberals are taking a “government knows best”
approach. It’s this same approach that has brought Ontario and its health-care system
to the edge of a fiscal cliff.
Last election, Ms. Wynne promised a collaborative relationship with public-sector
service providers. For the unions that supported her, she has been generous. For those
that were neutral or not stridently supportive, she has taken a starkly different tone and
approach. With Ms. Wynne, it's her way or the highway. That’s no way to negotiate.
That’s no way to treat Ontario’s doctors. The OMA showed up to the bargaining table
ready to make a deal—it’s a shame Ms. Wynne couldn’t do the same.
The fiscal predicament Ms. Wynne and the Liberals have created for Ontario is only
making matters worse. Economic mismanagement and a complete lack of fiscal
restraint is forcing the government to divert resources from the essential services that
matter most to Ontarians, including primary health care.
Ontarians expect their government and their premier to approach the challenges our
health-care system faces with leadership and innovation. That means listening to the
doctors, nurses and other front-line health care workers to help ensure our system
remains affordable, accessible and efficient. That means tackling Ontario’s serious
economic challenges so that government can continue to adequately fund the quality
health-care services Ontarians expect and deserve.
Kathleen Wynne has demonstrated she’s interested in neither. Ontarians deserve
better.
Christine Elliott