10 ex-Ontario health ministers issue joint letter decrying ‘attack on public health’

Ten former Ontario health ministers from across the political spectrum are taking the rare step of sending a joint letter to the government, imploring it to reverse millions of dollars in public health cuts they say put the province “at risk.”

The letter is being sent to Health Minister Christine Elliott on Thursday morning, and is signed by:

• Dennis Timbrell (PCs).
• Three NDP ministers from the Bob Rae government: Ruth Grier, Evelyn Gigantes and Sen. Frances Lankin.
• Six former Liberal ministers: Dr. Helena Jaczek, Dr. Eric Hoskins, who served in the Kathleen Wynne government, former deputy premier Deb Matthews, and David Caplan, Elinor Caplan and George Smitherman.

“Traditionally, Ministers of Health have avoided commenting on the policies of their successors,” it reads. “Health has been seen as a non-partisan issue — something we all support. This attack on public health has prompted us to break our silence.”

The group is calling for a restoration of public health funding to keep water clean, prevent infectious disease, give vaccinations and provide school breakfast programs to children in need.

Concern mounts

Premier Doug Ford’s government recently notified municipal public health units in phone calls that it will reduce its cost-sharing levels from 100 per cent or 75 per cent in some cases, to 60 to 70 per cent for some municipalities, and 50 per cent for Toronto. It says the cuts will save Ontario $200 million per year by 2021-2022.

The plans also include cutting the number of public health units in Ontario from 35 to 10.

“If the government wants to end hallway medicine, as you have pledged, one of the best ways to do that is to actually invest more, not less, in public health. We need only look back to the SARS epidemic to realize the devastating impact of failing to invest in public health,” the letter says.

“Funding must be restored.”

The province has disputed the dollar figures attached to the cuts, saying they would “amount to one-third of a percentage point of the city’s annual budget, hardly a billion dollars.”

Meanwhile, the province has maintained all public health units across Ontario, including Toronto, will “continue to be properly funded.”

“We are working directly with our municipal partners as we slowly shift the cost-sharing funding model over the next three years to reflect the municipalities’ stronger role,” said Hayley Chazan, a spokesperson for Elliott, in a statement issued when cuts to Toronto Public Health came to light in April.

Since the news of the cuts, concern has mounted over who might be hardest hit as a result of the shrinking budgets and over what programs the city can afford to keep running. The public health agency puts $14 million toward school nutrition programs that serve 200,000 each year, for example.

‘This government has clearly crossed a line’

That concern is borne out in a recent poll by Environics Research, in which 70 per cent of those surveyed said they “strongly opposed” Ontario’s cuts to public health. The strongest opposition was in Toronto, where eight out of 10 residents were against the cuts, the poll suggested.

It was commissioned by CUPE Ontario and CUPE Local 70, which represents about 20,000 City of Toronto workers, and surveyed the opinions of 1,332 by phone from May 14 to 16.

That 10 former ministers of all different political stripes would come together as part of Thursday’s letter is an “unprecedented” move, said Cressy.

“Rarely do you see former health ministers oppose a sitting minister because healthcare has rarely been seen as a partisan issue,” he said, adding the letter should be “a wake-up call.

“This government has clearly crossed a line.”