Not just managers, Ford’s front-line job cuts have already started

QUEEN’S PARK — With another month to go before Doug Ford’s first budget, which is widely expected to include deep cuts, the NDP says the jobs that have already been cut include front-line staff that deliver health care and critical services.

Doug Ford revealed Wednesday in Cambridge that there will be job losses when he overhauls the health care system and creates his SuperAgency. Ford’s tall tales indicate that only management-level people will be fired — but the job cuts resulting from a lack of funding from the province have already included:

• 40 nursing jobs at the Grand River Hospital in Kitchener
• 60 nursing jobs at Sudbury Hospital
• 40 front-line staff at the Ontario Child Advocate
• A hiring freeze in education that will amount to the elimination of any teacher or education worker job vacated through things like maternity leave, transfer or retirement
• Autism therapists and social workers, including eight autism therapists and one social worker at KidsAbility in Kitchener-Waterloo
• Indigenous staff working on the Indigenous Culture Fund, which was cut from Ontario Arts Council funding

“Doug Ford has been making things up again,” said NDP Deputy Leader Sara Singh. “He says only managers will lose their jobs, but that’s already untrue, and the cuts have only just begun.

“How many cancer care workers will be fired when he scraps Cancer Care Ontario?

“And what will happen if Ford lifts the cap on class sizes or gets rid of full-day kindergarten with a teacher in the classroom all day? Will kindergarten teachers be fired?”

Singh said that slashing the services people rely on — and the staff that deliver them — will only take Ontario backwards.

“People deserve better from the government, not less services and longer wait times," said Singh.