To the Premier: 40-plus ministerial visits to the north, and this government still has no idea of our lived realities—or they don’t care.

The government is now studying whether district health units in northern Ontario should be merged. Can you imagine one health unit to cover 400,000 square kilometres?

The government is limiting funding increases to 1% per year, far less than inflation, and, shamefully, they are downloading another 5% of costs onto already strapped municipalities.

Why is this government trying to reduce health care services for the people of northern Ontario?

My question is to the Minister of Health. In the entire area from the Manitoba border to White River all the way up to Hudson’s Bay, anyone needing dialysis treatment must move to Thunder Bay, because we have the only hospital that currently has dialysis capacity. After nine months of living in Thunder Bay to receive treatment, Carol Davis has already spent $17,000 in expenses. It’s not only incredibly costly; it is also cruel that people who are sick have to move away from their homes, friends and families.

Minister, when will you be adding capacity to the three hospitals that already have dialysis units, and when will you be opening more dialysis units throughout the region?

To the Premier: At the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario meeting, I heard the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association delegation raise concerns about the proposal to cut Ontario’s health units from 35 to 10 and paramedic services from 55 to 10. The plan is to merge the Kenora, Rainy River and Thunder Bay districts under one health unit covering at least 220,000 square kilometres, and over 500,000 square kilometres if Kiiwetinoong is included.

In the Ontario northwest, we already face enormous geographical challenges to access health care. The proposed mega health unit would serve an absurdly large geographical area with distinctly different communities and distinctly different needs that no single health or paramedic unit could possibly manage without putting people’s lives at risk.

Why is this government looking to make our health care challenges in the north greater by reducing available services?

So my question is: Will this government listen to community members, health professionals and local mayors, stop the amalgamation of health units, return the monthly mobile health units, and strengthen rather than weaken access to health care in northern Ontario?