NDP forces vote on new Brampton hospital and Peel Memorial expansion

QUEEN’S PARK – Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath and the NDP MPPs will force a vote Wednesday on building a new hospital for Brampton, plus expanding Peel Memorial to be a full hospital, including an emergency department.

“Brampton families deserve to know that they will always get the care they deserve without long waits,” said Horwath. “Right now, everyone in Brampton knows what it’s like inside Brampton Civic and Peel Memorial — crowding, hallway medicine, and long waits for patients in pain, while their families are sick with worry. No one deserves that.

“The Liberals had years to build more hospital space in Brampton, and chose not to even as hallway medicine put Brampton Civic Hospital and the Peel Memorial centre under siege. Now Doug Ford doesn’t want to spend the money on Brampton, so his plan for Peel Memorial doesn’t include an ER, and it doesn’t even come close to the 850 new beds that Brampton urgently needs,” said Horwath.

Horwath will force a debate and vote on a motion on Wednesday that calls on the Ford government to provide the funding necessary to build and staff 850 beds in Brampton, turn Peel Memorial into a real hospital including an emergency department, and build a brand new standalone hospital — taking the city’s total number of hospitals from one to three.

“With an NDP government, Brampton would finally get the hospitals and investment in health care it so desperately needs,” said Horwath. “But let’s not make Brampton families wait. We’re inviting all MPPs from all parties to vote with us today — vote to finally give Brampton its fair share, so we can get shovels in the ground quickly.”

Bringing the city’s total hospitals from one to three was included in Horwath’s 2018 election platform, and in the NDP’s 2021 budget priorities.

Background

• Kathleen Wynne and Steven Del Duca had years to build hospitals in Brampton, but refused. From July 2018 to June 2019 Peel Memorial was between 557 per cent and 587 per cent full. Brampton Civic was in Code Gridlock multiple times every week by the time the Liberals left office.
• Ford’s cuts to health and public health made the situation worse. By Jan. 22, 2020, Brampton council had to declare a health care emergency, even before COVID-19 arrived. By the end of June 2021, Brampton Civic had transferred away more than 567 people, 150 of them in critical condition, because there weren’t enough beds or staff to care for them.
• Far from being a full-service hospital, Ford will not include in Peel Memorial’s expansion an emergency department nor acute care beds. Ford has only committed to building 250 beds over the next seven years, despite Brampton City Council’s urgent request for 850 new beds.

The text of Horwath’s motion reads as follows:

Whereas Brampton is one of the fastest growing and most diverse cities in the country, yet remains one of the most underserved cities in Canada in terms of healthcare services and investments; and

Whereas the previous Liberal government ignored the growing health services crisis in Brampton by refusing to build a new hospital; and

Whereas despite the challenges of the pandemic, the Ford government has broken its promise to upgrade Peel Memorial to a full hospital, walking away from the Premier’s commitment to build the second emergency room and acute care beds required to address long waits and a lack of capacity in the City’s one existing hospital; and

Whereas consecutive Liberal and Conservative governments have repeatedly failed to deliver on promises to improve healthcare in Brampton, despite the need for a minimum of 850 new beds and the construction of a third full-service hospital to address overcrowding and hallway medicine in Canada’s ninth-largest city;

Therefore, the Legislative Assembly calls on the Ford government to immediately provide the funding necessary to address the 850 beds needed in Brampton, build a new emergency room and beds at Peel Memorial, and build a third hospital to appropriately address the city’s healthcare needs.