Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the expiry of the ten-year Canada Health Accord signed in 2004.
Council of Canadians health care campaigner Michael Butler writes, “The federal government continues to ignore calls by the provinces and territories to work on a new deal, and shockingly announced devastating health care cuts with the bulk of the cuts (over $36 billion) coming into effect after the next federal election in 2015. …In the year since the Health Accord expired, the Conservatives have already reduced funding by $987 million. …That’s equivalent to 2,500 hospital beds, or 15,000 nursing staff. …[This] will create a pretext for mass privatization. Make no mistake; this is the Harper government’s plan.”
To mark this anniversary, Council of Canadians chapters will be taking part in a National Day of Action for a New Health Accord. The country-wide actions will include media conferences, protests outside MP offices, legislatures and other public meetings, as well as op-eds and letters to the editor.
Those chapters are St. John’s, Charlottetown, Halifax (in the Atlantic region), Peel Region, Sudbury, Windsor-Essex (in the Ontario-Quebec region), Edmonton, Calgary (in the Prairies region), and Nelson-West Kootenays, Vancouver, Comox Valley, Campbell River, Port Alberni, Mid-Island (in the BC-Yukon region).
For a complete listing of tomorrow’s actions being organized by the Council of Canadians, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Canadian Health Coalition, provincial health coalitions and other allied groups, please click here. There you will find a listing of 44 events taking place in 38 communities.
Beyond this day of action, Butler highlights, “In the next federal election it is crucial that Canadians #votehealth to save our public health care system. This means demanding federal parties clearly promise to protect and expand our public health care system by reversing the Conservative cuts.”
For more on the Council of Canadians health care campaign, please click here.
