Ric Bresee defended the Ford government’s record on healthcare on the Lorne Brooker Show on CJBQ Tuesday morning.
The Hastings-Lennox and Addington Progressive Conservative candidate is running to serve a second term at Queen’s Park.
Bresee says they’ve spent more money on healthcare than any other government, increasing spending by $30 billion since coming to power in 2018.
“We’re doing everything we can to bring more doctors, to lessen the load on doctors by allowing pharmacists to prescribe certain things, by including more services with the nurse practitioners and the nurses. We’re doing everything we can to untie this Gordian knot that has been created over the past 40 or 50 years.”
He adds the growth in population and an aging population mean the demands on the healthcare system are increasing faster than their ability to add new doctors.
“But we have more doctors and nurses and health care workers than we’ve ever had before. We’re spending more money to do that and we’re training more to come along behind. But we need to make sure that we continue to do that because our population keeps on getting older and the immigration just keeps on climbing at a faster pace than anyone would have predicted.”
He says it’s not just a matter of throwing more money at the system, but improving it as a whole.
“We need the focus here in eastern Ontario, here specifically in Hastings-Lennox and Addington and I can be that voice to make sure that we continue to get that attention. We’ve had some tremendous successes over the past two-and-a-half years. We’ve had some great investments with our municipalities and water and wastewater and the Building Faster fund.”
Other topics discussed were tariffs, post-secondary schools and the redevelopment of Ontario Place.
Hear Bresee’s entire interview below:
