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Volunteers needed for Ontario Health Coalition referendum vote
Posted: May 5, 2023
(May 4th, 2023)
By: Ellwood Shreve, The Stratford Becon Herald
The Ontario Health Coalition is holding a citizen-led referendum on the provincial government’s plan to privatize some health services and local volunteers are needed for a vote taking place later this month across Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton.
Lorraine Cameron, left, June Weiss and Shirley Roebuck, with the Sarnia-Lambton Health Coalition, were in Petrolia April 18 to talk about a coalition referendum on the expansion of for-profit health care clinics in Ontario. Similar events were held by Ontario Health Coalition chapters across the province. (Tyler Kula/Postmedia Network)
The Ontario Health Coalition is holding a citizen-led referendum on the provincial government’s plan to privatize some health services and local volunteers are needed for a vote taking place later this month across Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton. “We need everyone’s help,” said Shirley Roebuck, with the Chatham-Kent, Wallaceburg-Walpole Island and Sarnia-Lambton chapters of the Ontario Health Coalition. She said volunteers are needed for jobs such as delivering leaflets door to door and staffing polling stations. “There’s a variety of jobs that need to be done,” Roebuck said.
The first of 500 voting stations were announced on Thursday. There are 21 voting stations that will be set up in Chatham-Kent, including in Chatham, Wallaceburg, Dresden, Mitchell’s Bay, Tupperville, Thamesville, Bothwell, Merlin and Tilbury. A total of 28 voting stations will also be across Lambton County, including in Sarnia, Point Edward, Brights Grove, Port Lambton, Courtright, Corunna, Grand Bend, Thedford, Forest, Petrolia, Alvinston, Wyoming and Oil Springs.
Roebuck said details on volunteering can be found on the Facebook pages of Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton branches of the health coalition or by calling her at 226-402-2724. The provincial health coalition is in the midst of a campaign to give Ontario residents a chance to have a say about whether or not they support a plan by the Ontario government to privatize some health care services.
The health coalition says the government has called for bids for three new private day hospitals to initially perform 14,000 cataract surgeries as well as diagnostics. The coalition also says the province plans to have hip and knee surgeries performed in private health facilities by next year.
To vote in the citizen-led referendum, Roebuck said residents can show up to a voting station where they will receive a ballot that looks similar to a book mark. The ballot will seek a yes or no answer to one question: Do you want our public hospital services to be privatized to for-profit hospitals and clinics?
The ballots will be counted and brought to Queen’s Park for a rally at the end of the month. “We are hoping that the government will see that hundreds of thousands if not a million Ontarians want public hospitals,” said Roebuck. She added the hope is the government at least slows down on its plans to privatize health care.
