MPP and Ontario cabinet minister Todd Smith discusses issues on CJBQ’s Lorne Brooker Show. (Photo: Quinte News)
The Province’s Minister of Government and Consumer Services and its House Leader says the details have not been finalized yet but
there will be major “transformational changes” coming to the way health care is provided in Ontario.
Bay of Quinte riding MPP Todd Smith confirmed sweeping change during an appearance on CJBQ’s Lorne Brooker Show today (Friday).
Smith did not say whether the 14 Local Health Integration Networks now in existence in Ontario would be downsized to five or completely eliminated
as a CBC report earlier in the week had suggested.
“What we do know is that people complain constantly about how difficult it is to get to different parts of the system and how long they have to wait
for either emergency care or planned procedures. We have to do better. There’s a big bloated bureaucracy in the system and we need more tax dollars going
to front-line health care providers, not to bureaucrats.”
Smith said he believed the system was more fragmented than ever, even though the LHINs were put into place by the previous Liberal government to better
coordinate the system.
“The Minister of Health Christine Elliott will have major announcements to make in the not so distant future on health care. We have to do better and create
a smoother path through the system and get a better bang for our buck.”
Host Lorne Brooker questioned Smith about the just announced 10% cutback in tuition fees for university and college students.
“University tuition fees in 2006 were $5,000 and now they’re $9,000. That’s an astronomical increase” said Smith.
With the tuition cut, a university student would save over $800 a year and a college student over $300.
“The OSAP grant and loan system has been ballooning out of control and costing taxpayers way too much and that’s why no one, not even students from
the most financially challenged backgrounds will be getting a free ride through school anymore. They’ll get grants for some of their education costs, but loans
for the other part. We have to get costs under control.”
Smith also confirmed that the Oshawa GM assembly plant would close but said he and Premier Doug Ford had several meetings with GM and other auto manufacturing
executives at the International Auto Show in Detroit and he is convinced the future of the auto industry in Ontario is bright.
“We left Detroit convinced that investments will continue in the several other big auto plants in the province and that new jobs in the industry will be created here in
the next few years.”
