Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper: Ontario’s nurses condemn cuts to social programs (article)
This is good to see!
Transmitted by CNW Group on : September 28, 2006 16:19
TORONTO, Sept. 28 /CNW/ - Ontario nurses feel compelled to respond to
your government’s decision to cut one billion dollars in spending. Given the
overwhelming evidence that the health of Canadians is profoundly affected by
social determinants of health, members of the Registered Nurses’ Association
of Ontario (RNAO) are asking you to reverse these planned cuts.
Prime Minister Harper, these cuts will affect people who rely on these
very critical programs. For example, alarming rates of smoking in Aboriginal
communities will go unchecked with the elimination of funding for the First
Nations and Inuit Tobacco Strategy. We are also alarmed that sound health and
social policy will be eroded by eliminating funding for such programs as the
Medical Marijuana Research Program, the Canadian Policy Research Networks, and
Health Canada’s Policy Research Program.
Cuts to research programs on the health of visible minorities and support
for voluntary programs will be detrimental to the health of vulnerable
populations. Cuts to programs aimed at improving adult literacy and workplace
skills will compromise opportunities for the working poor and youth to find
better jobs and to build a brighter future.
As nurses, we know that health is more than health-care. Many of the
proposed cuts will exacerbate social exclusion. For example, the Court
Challenges Program has allowed minority groups such as Aboriginals, gays and
lesbians, and people with disabilities to challenge federal laws which
discriminate and lead to inequality. We are gravely concerned that Canada’s
tradition as a fair and just society is being damaged.
Prime Minister Harper, we understand there is a role for fiscal
responsibility in the budget process. However, the government’s attempt to
promote itself as a model of "prudent fiscal management" leaves tens of
thousands of Canadians behind at a time when the government is sitting on a
$13 billion budget surplus. Ontario’s nurses know that the long-term costs of
these cuts will far exceed any immediate savings, and will undermine the
progress being made to help disadvantaged and vulnerable people.
It is in the interest of all Canadians and our future as a nation that
you reverse these cuts.
Respectfully,
Mary Ferguson Paré, RN, PhD, CHE Doris Grinspun, RN, MSN, PhD(c) O.Ont
President Executive Director
Registered Nurses’ Association Registered Nurses’ Association
of Ontario of Ontario
-30-
/For further information: Marion Zych, Director of Communications, RNAO,
Phone: (416) 408-5605, 1-800-268-7199 ext. 209, Cell: (647) 406-5605, E-mail:
mzych@rnao.org/
