Horwath and NDP MPPs head to Brampton to fight for hospitals

Ford’s 2021 budget didn’t have funding or timeline for Peel Memorial, no word of a new hospital

BRAMPTON – NDP Leader Andrea Horwath and NDP MPPs were in Brampton Thursday to reignite the fight for a new standalone hospital.

Doug Ford’s 2021 budget does not include funding, a timeline or details about Peel Memorial Urgent Care Centre’s Phase 2 — which has been announced again and again since 2017, but never built. The Conservative budget does not even mention the new, standalone hospital Brampton needs, let alone provide funding for it.

“Brampton families know what it’s like inside Brampton Civic Hospital and Peel Memorial Urgent Care Centre — crowding, hallway medicine, and long waits for patients in pain, while their families are sick with worry,” said Horwath. “People needed this week’s budget to give them hope that the crowding and long waits will be over soon.

“If this were an NDP budget, we would have announced a new hospital in Brampton plus the urgently needed expansion of Peel Memorial — including a full emergency department,” said Horwath.

A new, standalone hospital, as well as the immediate expansion of Peel Memorial to turn it into a full hospital, were included in Horwath’s 2018 election platform, and in the NDP’s 2021 budget priorities.

“We will never give up on Brampton families. We’re going to turn up the volume on our fight to get three hospitals in Brampton, without any more delays, and if Mr. Ford doesn’t get shovels in the ground, we will in 2022,” said Horwath. “The time to invest in Brampton families and their health is long overdue.”