Health care employees rallied against federal cuts to the health care system outside Lions Gate Hospital Wednesday, one year to the day funding cutbacks were implemented.
As part of a multi-city rally across the country, health workers and members of the public gathered to protest the $36 billion in funding cuts the Harper government implemented last year, following the expiration of a 10-year health care accord signed in 2004.
For the province of B.C., that means $5 billion less in health care funding between 2014-2024, something those at the rally demanded action against.
“It’s going to impact all of us. It’s going to impact our families, our mothers our sisters our brothers and our babies,” said Louella Vincent of the Hospital Employees Union. “We need the right Premier, we need the right Prime Minister elected so that we can have someone who thinks like a Canadian, acts like a Canadian, and spends like a Canadian because what we’ve got happening now is not Canadian.”
The rallies also had the support of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Canadian Health Coalition and the Council of Canadians.
Gill Valentine, local HEU spokesperson, said rallies in support of health care like this are something most Canadians aren’t normally accustomed to doing.
“People say, ‘What’s wrong? Why aren’t people outraged and screaming in the streets?’ It’s not the Canadian way. We don’t normally don’t have to do all this stuff; we’ve always been so used to having it.”
She urged those in attendance to stand up and take action against the cuts.
“If we don’t stand up and fight to keep our health care public, who will? We need everybody to get the message out there. This is going to affect every single Canadian, not just in B.C,” she said. “We need to elect a government that has these issues in the forefront and ones we can actually believe will do what is needed.”
However, Conservative MP for North Vancouver Andrew Saxton said that throwing more money at the problem is not the answer. He said government needs to look at more innovative ways when it comes to health care spending.
Saxton cited that in the past 10 years, the amount in health transfers from the national to provincial level have risen almost 70 per cent nationally, close to 60 per cent in B.C. He said increases in transfers from the federal government are currently about double the rate in which provinces are increasing spending on health care.
“The increase in transfers from the federal government to provincial government (is) increasing at a rate of six per cent per year, whereas actual spending on health care by provinces is increasing three per cent,” he explained. “Our transfers are going up at a rate almost double that spending is going up. … They’re getting a premium surplus in transfers.”
Note: This story has been modified since first posted.
