Horwath committed to investment at Sarnia hospitals and schools

Doug Ford’s cuts would cost Sarnia 159 teachers, 100 frontline health care workers

SARNIA – NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is committed to fix long health care wait times and to build up schools in Sarnia.

Meanwhile, Doug Ford’s plan for $6 billion in across-the-board cuts would mean at least 159 teachers and 100 frontline health care workers laid off.

“There’s this growing idea that we don’t have to accept cuts anymore,” said Horwath. “We don’t have to wait longer for health care. We don’t have to keep watching our children’s teachers have to do more with less. And we don’t have to keep paying more and more, without really getting ahead.

“It can be different. There’s this growing idea that, this time, people can win the election. We can choose change for the better, together.”

Doug Ford and the Conservatives’ $6 billion in planned cuts could mean 28,000 nurses fired and 780 schools closed throughout the province. In Sarnia, that would mean at least 100 staff fired and 13 beds shut down at Bluewater Health in Sarnia. It would also mean that Doug Ford would lay off at least 159 teachers from the Lambton Kent District School Board and the St. Clair Catholic District School Board.

In exchange for all those cuts, big corporations would get $5 billion in tax breaks, big six-figure earners would get about $1,200 in tax breaks and the majority of people would get just $18 in tax breaks.

Horwath’s plan not only stops the cuts, but moves Sarnia forward. Her platform includes:

• Ending hallway medicine
• Fixing seniors care
• Lowering hydro bills by 30 per cent
• Creating thousands of student co-op jobs and internships
• Providing drug and dental coverage for everyone
• Placing a moratorium on school closures
• Fixing schools and funding them properly

The NDP’s fully-costed Change for the Better platform can be found at ontariondp.ca/platform.