Ontario long-term care patients are older and sicker than they were a decade ago. The majority have some form of cognitive impairment. Yet “staffing and funding are lower in our province than the rest of Canada, research shows,” says Michael Hurley CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE) president.

Ontario’s annual funding per long-term care bed totals $43,970.77 compared with $52,185.09 in the rest of Canada, excluding Ontario. The rest of Canada has the equivalent of 3.67 hours a day of nursing and personal care for each resident while Ontario has just 3.15 hours daily.

Across Ontario nurses, personal support workers and other long-term care staff, along with resident family council advocates, have appealed to the Ontario Liberal government to increase resident care levels. They say not enough staff means daily direct care is hectic, rushed and lacks compassion. But that’s not all. Care is compromised in many ways, from resident cleanliness and infection control, to feeding, the research indicates.

“A very sad aspect of insufficient care levels are conditions that increase incontinence because there are not enough staff to answer call bells when residents need to be helped to the toilet. Care staff are very demoralized. They want the province to act now to increase care hours. They are very concerned that a public inquiry initiated by the government to examine the horrific actions of one nurse, will delay care reforms that are needed now to improve care quality and to better protect residents,” says Hurley.

The province announced in late June, it intends to hold a public inquiry into the circumstances of the murders of eight elderly residents of long-term care homes in Woodstock and London.

A private members Bill (Bill 33-The Time to Care Act) that if passed would set higher daily resident care levels (a minimum of 4-hours) is now in second reading in the Ontario Legislature.

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For more information please contact:

Michael Hurley            CUPE Ontario First-Vice President, OCHU president           416-884-0770

Stella Yeadon             CUPE Communications                                                          416-559-9300

Ontario long-term care patients are older and sicker than they were a decade ago. The majority have some form of cognitive impairment. Yet “staffing and funding are lower in our province than the rest of Canada, research shows,” says Michael Hurley CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE) president.

Ontario’s annual funding per long-term care bed totals $43,970.77 compared with $52,185.09 in the rest of Canada, excluding Ontario. The rest of Canada has the equivalent of 3.67 hours a day of nursing and personal care for each resident while Ontario has just 3.15 hours daily.

Across Ontario nurses, personal support workers and other long-term care staff, along with resident family council advocates, have appealed to the Ontario Liberal government to increase resident care levels.

Bonnie Soucie has several decades of experience as a chronic and long-term care registered practical nurse (RPN) in Ottawa. She says there aren’t enough staff to meet the growing and complex care needs of significantly older residents in long-term care than there were even a decade ago. “This means daily direct care is hectic, rushed and lacks compassion. But that’s not all,” Soucie says. “Care is compromised in many ways, from resident cleanliness and infection control, to feeding, the research indicates.”

Another very sad aspect of insufficient care levels, Hurley says are conditions that increase incontinence because there are not enough staff to answer call bells when residents need to be helped to the toilet. “Care staff are very demoralized. They want the province to act now to increase care hours. They are very concerned that a public inquiry initiated by the government to examine the horrific actions of one nurse, will delay care reforms that are needed now to improve care quality and to better protect residents.”

The province announced in late June, it intends to hold a public inquiry into the circumstances of the murders of eight elderly residents of long-term care homes in Woodstock and London.

A private members Bill (Bill 33 - The Time to Care Act) that if passed would set higher daily resident care levels (a minimum of 4-hours) is now in second reading in the Ontario Legislature.

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For more information please contact:

Michael Hurley            President, OCHU/CUPE                                                       416-884-0770

Stella Yeadon             CUPE Communications                                                        416-559-9300

Cuts announced yesterday of $20 million at HHS (Hamilton Health Sciences) and $7 million at St. Joseph’s Hospital corporations will seriously undermine hospitals already operating over capacity, CUPE charged today.

“HHS is operating now at over 110 per cent capacity, which speaks to the need of a 10 per cent budget increase, not a $20 million funding cut,“ said Dave Murphy, president of CUPE Local 7800, which represents 4,000 staff at HHS. “There is no question that beds and staff will have to be cut to achieve this purely mathematical target set by the provincial government, which will be achieved on the backs of the Hamiltonians who won’t get access to the acute care services they need.”

Hospitals in Ontario operate with the fewest beds and staff to population of any province in the country. They have the shortest length of stay.

“The Hamilton hospitals are over-capacity at levels well beyond what would be considered dangerous and unsafe in Britain, where anything over 85 per cent is seen as heightening the risk of medical error and hospital acquired infection. HHS and St. Joseph’s are seriously underfunded and have endured 8 years of cuts, during which their budgets have been reduced by 25 per cent in real terms. The community will not stand by while the government guts these hospitals. We will certainly do everything in our power to organize support for a special infusion of funding,” said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.

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For further information:

Dave Murphy           President, CUPE Local 7800                                       905-518-5218

Michael Hurley         President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE 416-884-0770

Stella Yeadon           CUPE Communications                                              416-559-9300

Both parties are committed to continue working towards a collective agreement.

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For more information, please contact:

Matthew Stella, CUPE Communications, 613-252-4377

Ontario long-term care patients are older and sicker than they were a decade ago. The majority have some form of cognitive impairment. Yet “staffing and funding are lower in our province than the rest of Canada, research shows,” says Michael Hurley CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE) president.

Ontario’s annual funding per long-term care bed totals $43,970.77 compared with $52,185.09 in the rest of Canada, excluding Ontario. The rest of Canada has the equivalent of 3.67 hours a day of nursing and personal care for each resident while Ontario has just 3.15 hours daily.

Across Ontario nurses, personal support workers and other long-term care staff, along with resident family council advocates, have appealed to the Ontario Liberal government to increase resident care levels. They say not enough staff means daily direct care is hectic, rushed and lacks compassion. But that’s not all. Care is compromised in many ways, from resident cleanliness and infection control, to feeding, the research indicates.

“A very sad aspect of insufficient care levels are conditions that increase incontinence because there are not enough staff to answer call bells when residents need to be helped to the toilet. Care staff are very demoralized. They want the province to act now to increase care hours. They are very concerned that a public inquiry initiated by the government to examine the horrific actions of one nurse, will delay care reforms that are needed now to improve care quality and to better protect residents,” says Hurley.

The province announced in late June, it intends to hold a public inquiry into the circumstances of the murders of eight elderly residents of long-term care homes in Woodstock and London.

A private members Bill (Bill 33 - The Time to Care Act) that if passed would set higher daily resident care levels (a minimum of 4-hours) is now in second reading in the Ontario Legislature.

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For more information please contact:

Michael Hurley            President, OCHU/CUPE                                                        416-884-0770

Stella Yeadon             CUPE Communications                                                          416-559-9300

A general 3.1 per cent increase in hospital funding was proposed in the 2017 provincial budget last April. Following that, in the throes of a by-election, the Sault Area Hospital received a 3.8 per cent funding increase. On average hospitals are receiving about 2 per cent well below the announced 3.1 per cent.

“It looks like our hospital won’t even scratch the low end of the 2 per cent funding. That’s a serious problem since the hospital has been overcapacity, with a marked increase in patients for most of 2017,” says Rodrigues.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, August 2, 2017) at 11 a.m. at the Stuart Street entrance of the Kingston General Hospital (KGH), Rodrigues along with CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) president Michael Hurley, will hold a media conference to discuss the impacts of the below average allocation.

“It is very concerning that funding is so low for Kingston’s newly merged hospital. While the optics of pretend funding make for good sound bites for the provincial government, the reality for patients of funding below inflationary pressures, which run over 5 per cent, is that there will be more patient care, service, bed and staff cuts. More patients will be in solariums, tub rooms and hallways because there just aren’t enough beds,” says Hurley.

In October 2016, OCHU/CUPE organized a large provincial rally in Kingston attended by over 1000 health care workers, aimed at increasing funding by 5 per cent for hospitals, to stem 10 years of cuts. The Ontario Hospital Association called for a similar investment in hospital funding to reflect the actual hospital operating costs.  Rallies were also held in Hamilton, Kenora and Sudbury. Another rally is planned for October in Ottawa at the Montfort hospital.

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For more information please contact:

Michael Hurley         President, OCHU/CUPE    416-884-0770

Stella Yeadon           CUPE Communications     416-559-9300

Mike Rodrigues                President CUPE 1974        613-876-4309

A general 3.1 per cent increase in hospital funding was proposed in the 2017 provincial budget last April. Following that, in the throes of a by-election, the Sault Area Hospital received a 3.8 per cent funding increase. On average hospitals are receiving about 2 per cent well below the announced 3.1 per cent, but real costs are rising by 5.3 per cent.

“It looks like our hospital won’t even scratch the low end of the 2 per cent funding. That’s a serious problem since the hospital has been overcapacity, with a marked increase in patients for most of 2017,” says Rodrigues.

For 2017-2018, KHSC received only a $7.659 million funding increase. When all the hospital’s revenue streams are factored, the increase amounts to about 1.4 per cent for the coming year, just as the new hospital an “integration” of the Hotel Dieu and Kingston General hospitals gets off the ground.

Provincial funding below inflationary pressures at KHSC will sadly fuel more cuts to care, beds and staff, said Michael Hurley president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU). “More patients will continue to be adversely affected. They will be cared for in solariums, tub rooms and hallways, by overstretched and exhausted staff because there just aren’t enough beds and front line staff to meet the care needs of increasingly sicker patients.”

Based on the latest figures from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Ontario government funding for hospitals is $1,395.73 per capita. The rest of Canada, excluding Ontario, spends $1,749.69 per capita. This means that provincial and territorial governments outside of Ontario spend $353.96 more (about 25.3 per cent more) per person on hospitals than Ontario does.

In October 2016, OCHU/CUPE organized a large provincial rally in Kingston attended by over 1000 health care workers, aimed at increasing funding by 5 per cent for hospitals, to stem 10 years of cuts. The Ontario Hospital Association called for a similar investment in hospital funding to reflect the actual hospital operating costs.  Rallies were also held in Hamilton, Kenora and Sudbury. Another rally is planned for October in Ottawa at the Montfort hospital.

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For more information please contact:

Michael Hurley         President, OCHU/CUPE    416-884-0770

Mike Rodrigues        President CUPE 1974        613-876-4309

Stella Yeadon     CUPE Communications     416-559-9300

Hamilton's hospitals are running at dangerously high levels of overcrowding, result of years of underfunding by the Wynne government," says Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC). "We are hearing from patients who are waiting on stretchers in hallways and suffering cancelled surgeries because of the cuts that have already occurred. This community cannot take any more cuts and we will be organizing to rise up and stop them."

Joining Mehra for a media conference on Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at 10 a.m. at 795 King Street East, Hamilton, are Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 7800 president Dave Murphy and Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE). They will review the impact on Hamilton’s patients of Ontario’s purposeful shrinking of its hospital system and cutting beds and services, despite a growing and aging population.

With not enough hospital beds, HHS currently has occupancy rates of over 110 per cent. Last winter OCHU/CUPE called on the Ontario government to fully fund additional permanent hospital beds to deal with the consistent surge in patients.

CUPE polled people in Hamilton in January 2017 and asked them about their support for hospital cutbacks. 93 per cent opposed cuts to Hamilton hospitals. 91 per cent believed that the provincial government should increase funding for Hamilton hospitals.

OHC is the largest public interest group on health care in Ontario. It has successfully stopped the closure of hospital birthing units and emergency departments across the province and rolled back user fees for patients.

CUPE represents over 10,000 nurses, trades, administrative cleaning and support staff at hospitals in the Hamilton region.

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For more information please contact:

Natalie Mehra Executive Director, Ontario Health Coalition             416-230-6402  

Dave Murphy  President, CUPE 7800                                               905-518-5218

Michael Hurley President, OCHU/CUPE                                           416-884-0770

Stella Yeadon  CUPE Communications                                             416-559-9300

Hamilton’s hospitals received a 2 per cent increase in this year’s budget, which is barely enough to meet inflation. It does not cover population growth, aging and utilization costs (amounting to an additional 3%) leaving the hospitals in a significant shortfall. This comes after an entire decade in which hospital funding has been cut in real dollar terms – the longest period of cuts in Ontario’s history.

“It has been exasperating to hear the public relations messaging put out by provincial government authorities. They simply cannot any longer claim that their cuts don’t affect patient care,” said Rolf Gerstenberger, co chair of the Hamilton Health Coalition. “We hear from patients who have had their surgeries cancelled because there are no beds in which to recover. We hear from people who have waited for days on stretchers in hallways because there are no beds into which to admit them. It is reckless and irresponsible for the provincial government to continue to cut our hospitals.”

His concerns were echoed by Dave Murphy, president of CUPE Local 7800 which represents 4,000 staff at HHS: “Staff at Hamilton Health Sciences are struggling to cope with the permanent surge in patients at the hospitals. An aging and growing population is demanding acute care services from a system gutted by years of budget cuts. With bed occupancy rates regularly at or over 100%, it is very clear that the hospitals have been forced to cut badly needed beds and services. The idea of further cutbacks is completely unacceptable.”

The evidence is indisputable that cuts have already gone too far. In May, the Chief of Hamilton Paramedic Service reported to Hamilton’s emergency and community services committee that multiple ambulances are tied up at the hospitals in unacceptable offload delays of more than 2-hours. Hospital data shows that both hospital have been operating up to 100- 120% capacity (which means they are full to overflowing) in recent years. The international standard for safe levels of occupancy is 80 – 85%. Ambulance offload delays occur when all hospital beds are full, backing up emergency departments and filling hallways with patients on stretchers because there is nowhere left to admit patients. The data reported to the city’s committee showed ambulances taken off the road in hospital offload delays of more than two hours at an average of 14 times per day .

“These cuts are the result of budget choices by the Wynne government, not necessities. The other provinces in Canada funds their hospitals at a higher rate and there is no jurisdiction outside of Ontario that has cut so many hospital beds and services,” reported Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition. “We will be organizing the community into a campaign that cannot be ignored to force the Wynne government to step up and meets its responsibility to fund Hamilton’s hospitals to meet the population’s need for care. These cuts must end now and urgent reinvestments must be made to protect patient and staff safety.”

“All three political parties need to acknowledge that our hospitals require funding at a rate at least equivalent to their real costs, which is 5%. HHS and St. Joseph’s are being funded at 2% and their budgets will be cut again by 3% this year. We expect the Liberal government to increase hospital funding to cover the actual costs and we expect the opposition parties to be strong advocates for that. We have some way to go to achieve this but I am very confident that the Hamilton community strongly supports adequate funding for their hospitals,” says Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s 30,000 member Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.

The Ontario Health Coalition has been tracking cuts since 2012 alone. It found public reports totalling more than $185 million in cuts from Hamilton hospitals in the last five years. Newspaper reports show that more than $100 million was cut in the previous five years also.

Hamilton Health Sciences
2012 –$15 million in cuts. (Total cuts since 2007 $104 million.) Source: Hamilton Spectator January 24, 2013.
2013 –$25 million in cuts. Source: January 24, 2013. These cuts impacted 140 jobs.
2014 -- $25 million in cuts. Source: MyKawartha.com/Hamilton Spectator October 24, 2014.
2016 -- $30 million in cuts resulting in the elimination of 97 staff positions. Source: Hamilton Spectator March 4, 2016.
August 2017 -- $20 million in cuts. Source: Hamilton Spectator July 27, 2017.
Total: at least $115 million since 2012

St. Joseph’s Health System
2012 – $7.5 million in cuts. Source: Hamilton Spectator, July 27, 2012.
2013 -- $10 - $12 million in cuts. Source: Hamilton Spectator February 7, 2013.
2014 – $10 million in cuts. Source: Inside Halton/Hamilton Spectator September 4, 2014.
2015 – $10 million in cuts. Source: xxx
2016 -- $26 million shortfall resulted in cuts to 136 positions. Source: CBC News Feb. 1 2016/December 4, 2015.
August 2017 -- $7 million in cuts. Source: Hamilton Spectator July 27, 2017.
Total: at least $70.5 million since 2012

For more information: Natalie Mehra (cell) 416-230-6402, Michael Hurley (cell) 416-884-0770.

At a news conference at Queen’s Park today (Thursday), Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath outlined the key amendments her party will put forward on Bill 148, Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act 2017. The legislature’s Standing Committee will consider the NDP amendments beginning the week of August 21 as part of its clause-by-clause analysis of the Bill.

The NDP amendments, as backed by CUPE Ontario, would make it easier for all workers – not just some – to join a union; protect all workers – not just some – from contract flipping; and make clear the direction of these changes: to reverse the dangerous and increasingly precarious nature of work in Ontario.

Attending the NDP’s news conference, CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn said:

“The amendments that Andrea Horwath and the Ontario NDP are proposing are proof that they have been listening to Ontarians and are representing their interests.”

“The proposed changes from the NDP around Bill 148 reflect what activists have been demanding for more than two years. They’re also what MPPs heard at the government hearings that took place across Ontario this past summer.”

Hahn pointed out that, at the hearings, the workers and organizations advocating for positive changes to Ontario’s employment standards and labour relations laws far outnumbered the Bill’s opponents – sometimes by more than 2 to 1.

Calling Bill 148 “a good start,” Hahn continued, “If the Liberals are serious about dealing with the changing nature of work – really serious about helping working people who are falling farther and farther behind – then they will take seriously the positive and progressive amendments being put forward by the NDP to make Bill 148 stronger.”

He warned that if the government refused to entertain the NDP’s amendments, the Liberals would be ignoring calls for similar changes from a broad range of individuals and groups, including every union in the Ontario Federation of Labour; community legal clinics; workers’ action centres; unemployed workers organizations; and women’s, ethno-cultural, and anti-poverty groups.

“The NDP’s amendments represent all the priorities that CUPE submitted as a union and that we, our partners, and allies agreed to advocate for,” concluded Hahn.

CUPE is Ontario’s community union, with more than 260,000 members providing quality public services we all rely on, in every part of the province, every day. CUPE Ontario members are proud to work in social services, health care, municipalities, school boards, universities and airlines.

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For more information, contact: Mary Unan, CUPE Communications, 647-390-9839

www.cupe.on.ca

“If enacted, these amendments would strengthen the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act and deliver greater fairness to workplaces across the province,” said Ontario Federation of Labour President Chris Buckley. “There’s no doubt that Ontario voters want to see real action to improve the job prospects for current and future generations of workers."

The vast majority of Ontarians support at least a $15 minimum wage – and many want to see a minimum wage that is even higher. The OFL welcomes the proposal to remove exemptions to the minimum wage.

“That’s why eliminating the sub-minimum wages for students and liquor servers, as proposed by the ONDP, is a welcome amendment,” said Buckley. “Indeed, this amendment is an extension of the government’s commitment to equal pay for equal work and we hope it will be supported by all parties.”

“The OFL also welcomes the amendments that would remove the barriers workers face when trying to form a union,” said Buckley. “This important step must also include protecting workers against reprisals when they organize or when they exercise any of their rights under the law.”

The OFL urges all parties to go further to ensure that Bill 148 implements changes that support decent work across the province.

“Workers have been waiting far too long for these kinds of changes,” said Buckley. “Bill 148 and the amendments proposed today can start to make a real difference for millions of workers,” said Buckley. “But, as they continue to evaluate Bill 148, we hope the parties will go even further in implementing a vision for decent work.”

Along with community partners the Fight for $15 and Fairness, the Ontario Federation of Labour has been calling for the following changes to Bill 148:

Labour Relations Act:

• Remove all exemptions to the Labour Relations Act.
• Prohibit combining bargaining units where bargaining rights are held by different
• Combine bargaining units of franchisees of the same
• Provide greater access to workplace
• Extend card-based certification to all
• Provide greater access to automatic first contract
• Extend successorship rights to all contracted
• Prohibit replacement

Employment Standards Act:

• Include dependent contractors under the definition of employee in the Employment Standards Act.
• Strengthen equal pay for equal work
• Prohibit parties from contracting out the minimum standards in the Employment Standards Act.
• Remove sub-minimum wage rates and exemptions to the minimum
• Further protect temporary agency workers and further regulate temporary
• Extend just cause protection for all
• Legislate seven (7) paid Personal Emergency Leave (PEL)
• Establish a designated leave for survivors of domestic and/or sexual

For more details on the amendments being proposed to the Bill, please visit ofl.ca and 15andFairness.org.

The OFL’s www.MakeItFair.ca campaign and the Fight for $15 and Fairness takes on issues of inequality in the workforce, and coincides with the province’s “Changing Workplaces Review.” The campaign calls for across-the-board changes to the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act that would improve standards for all workers and make it easier for them to join a union.

The OFL represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For more information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter.

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For further information contact:
Rob Halpin
Executive Director
Ontario Federation of Labour

rhalpin@ofl.ca l 416-707-9014

Hahn also urged CUPE members to head to Unifor’s picket lines in Milton as a show of solidarity with Northstar workers and called on the provincial government, as well as the employer, to protect workers’ retirement security.

Hahn’s statement reads:

Ontario’s largest public-sector union stands shoulder to shoulder with Ontario’s largest private-sector union, as Unifor members defend their pensions from unfair and arbitrary cuts by Northstar Aerospace.

By taking direct action to protect pensions for current and future retirees, the workers at Northstar Aerospace are not just standing up for themselves, but for their families, their communities, and for every other worker whose retirement security is under threat from corporate greed.

These workers have paid into their pension plan in good faith; some have worked at Northstar Aerospace more than 40 years. It’s bad enough that the plant is closing; workers shouldn’t have to suffer a 24 per cent cut in their pension benefits as well.

Yet we see this sort of injustice occurring with infuriating regularity, right across the country; we have only to look at what has happened to workers at Sears Canada to see how vulnerable our jobs and retirement security really are.

Seeing these workers act to defend their pensions is deeply significant for all of us and should act as a wake-up call to our politicians.

Successive governments could have put legislation in place long ago in Ontario to protect workers’ right to security in retirement; they could have stopped companies from abandoning their obligations to their workers and retirees. But since government hasn’t acted, workers have had to.

CUPE Ontario is calling on both the provincial government and Northstar Aerospace to heed this action by workers and to do what is right and necessary to protect workers and their futures.

As a mark of our determination to see that happen, CUPE is organizing with the rest of the labour movement to offer every possible support to Unifor and Northstar workers as they engage in this important struggle.

--------------------------------------

CUPE is Ontario’s community union, with more than 260,000 members providing quality public services we all rely on, in every part of the province, every day. CUPE Ontario members are proud to work in social services, health care, municipalities, school boards, universities and airlines.

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For more information, contact:

Mary Unan, CUPE Communications, 647-390-9839

The union will now await ratification of the agreement by Waterloo Regional Council, who are expected to make their decision shortly.

No details of the agreement will be released until it is ratified by both parties.

CUPE 5191 represents 220+ paramedics and dispatchers in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo.

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Chris Sutton, CUPE National Representative, 647-462-4970

Matthew Stella, CUPE Communications, 613-252-4377

CUPE, along with Fred Hahn, Diane Dowling and John Clark, filed their suit against the Premier and Ministers in December of last year. The misfeasance suit over the sale of shares in Hydro One alleged that the government knew selling Hydro One would hurt the people of Ontario and proceeded anyway, structuring the deal in a way that financially benefited their Bay Street friends and ultimately the Ontario Liberal Party.

“We are pleased, and ultimately relieved, that the judge ruled the Premier and her Ministers cannot hide behind parliamentary privilege. This was the crux of the government’s motion to dismiss, claiming they were not subject to the same law as the rest of us. It is critical to our democracy that the judge dismissed this argument,” said Hahn.  “On the other hand, we’re baffled by how he could have reached the conclusion that ‘pleading was unsupported.’”

“We know the government’s decision was not in the best interest of the people of Ontario, we know they structured the deal in a way that benefitted bankers and consultants operating as middle men on the deal, and we know those same bankers and Bay street insiders were invited to Liberal party fundraisers to explicitly celebrate the sale of Hydro One shares, where they made huge donations to the Liberal party. This is all a matter of public record,” he said. “We believe these facts should amply support the case to move forward at this stage and be heard by a judge in a full public hearing in court.”

Prior to the sale of Hydro One shares, experts, including the government’s own Financial Accountability Officer, told the government that selling Hydro One would hurt the province financially in the long-run. Following the completion of the sale of the first set of shares, all the bankers that made tens of millions of dollars from the sale, were invited to a fundraiser for the Liberal Party that was billed as a celebration of the deal.

“No elected member of government can use their power to knowingly make a decision that will hurt the people of Ontario and benefit themselves. This is precisely the type of improper conduct by government officials that the law of misfeasance in public office is supposed to prevent, and we believe it’s illegal,” said Hahn. “We are looking into appealing this decision. The people of our province deserve to know what actually happened and who really benefited from the sale of Hydro One, because they certainly know they didn’t.”

CUPE is Ontario’s community union, with more than 260,000 members providing quality public services we all rely on, in every part of the province, every day. CUPE Ontario members are proud to work in social services, health care, municipalities, school boards, universities and airlines.

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For more information, contact: Sarah Jordison, CUPE Communications, 416-578-5638

www.cupe.on.ca

TORONTO, ON – Fresh, local, nutritious food is what's best for convalescing patients. But St. Joseph’s Health Centre intends to close its in-house kitchens and buy plated, microwavable "TV dinner"-style food from a factory operation somewhere outside of Toronto.

"It's the wrong decision," says Anne Piper, a Registered Practical Nurse at St. Joseph’s Health Centre. “If the hospital plans to change our patient food and guest cafeteria services, they should do it right, go the other way and cook Ontario-grown meats and vegetables right in our own hospital kitchen from scratch. Any medical professional will tell you that sick people need good, healthy food to get better.”

Piper is among dozens of single-minded workers at the hospital represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1144, who are taking their campaign to bring locally grown and in-house cooked patient food to St. Joseph’s.

They’re holding a media conference on Wednesday, August 30, 2017 at 10:30 a.m., garden-side Sunnyside Avenue and Parkdale Road, to announce the details of the campaign.

“Here in Parkdale, we have a strong local food movement, affluence co-existing with a large vulnerable poorer patient population,” says Dave Streit, president of CUPE 1144.  “Because of this, we think the hospital has a very different leadership to play. Recognizing that some of our patients come to us under-housed and some malnourished, is a must for the hospital. We need a fresh approach, not factory food for convalescing patients. We think our community will support a local patient food solution.”

WHAT:      Announcement of campaign to bring local food into hospital cafeteria cooking

WHEN:      Wednesday, August 30, 10:30 a.m.

WHERE:    Sunnyside Avenue and Parkdale Road, garden-side

WHO:        CUPE 1144 President Dave Streit, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions First Vice-President Louis Rodrigues

WHY:         Cooking hospital meals in-house with locally grown food will help patients and the community

For more information please contact:

David Streit

President CUPE 1144

647-704-9727

Louis Rodrigues
OCHU First Vice-President
613-531-1319

Matthew Stella

CUPE Communications

613-252-4377

Craig Hesman, president of Local 2286 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE 2286), which represents 350 Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society workers, expressed his disappointment about the announcement of 12 layoffs and the elimination of 23 positions in total. “This is an already short-staffed and underfunded agency. The need for child protection services is on the rise in Windsor and Essex County and across the province. We should be raising staffing and service levels to meet those needs instead of making children and families in our community suffer.”

Many of these cuts are to positions that make Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society more effective in assessing which children are in need of agency care. “We are losing people who are doing some of our most valuable work, whose roles include assessing if it is appropriate to bring children into care and educating children to recognize behaviours in their homes that might be a cause for concern.” Hesman said, “Some of these staff assist in sustaining families and protect children through situations of high stress and reduce the incidence of admissions into our care, which is a cost savings to the agency.”

The union also expressed its surprise at the timing of the announcement. “We don’t know what is behind these layoffs since we don’t know the financial situation of the agency at this time. It’s still early in the fiscal year,” said Hesman, “but what we do know is that we need to have an effective organization that addresses the needs of our community. We should be seeing staffing and service increases. It is very concerning that we are going in the opposite direction. The Ministry needs to take immediate action.”

Carrie Lynn Poole-Cotham, Chair of CUPE Ontario’s Social Services Committee, made a further call for something to be done to address the cuts. “The fact of the matter is, if we need more people on the front lines to strengthen preventative programs for families and protect children in our communities, then we need to talk about funding,” she said. “The Ministry of Children and Youth Services is currently conducting another funding formula review due to the current flawed model. However, the Windsor-Essex Children's Aid Society is cutting staff in advance of even having their funding allocations confirmed from the province. This is a premature decision. We need transparency on funding and spending within the agency. Decisions like these should be made with the aim of maintaining programs and services. It is time for the province to address how to properly fund these services.”

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For more information, please contact:

Catherine Barrett, CUPE National Representative, 519-982-2764

Matthew Stella, CUPE Communications, 613-252-4377

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