Page 23 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 125

www.sportsenergynews.com Issue #125 June 2023 23

Stormont-Dundas-South Stormont-Dundas-South

On June 2 , Elect Glengarry MPP Glengarry MP
nd
Nolan Interview Interview

Quinn MPP Nolan Quinn with
with

MP Eric Duncan

ecently there has been a lot of chatter around Bill 60 and fear around a
NolanQuinn.ca 1-866-477-9477 $27 Million in “Performance
Rthreat of a 2 tier health care system. My offi ce and I have been receiving
misinformed claims that our government is trying to create a system where Bonuses” to Housing Gatekeepers
patients will have to pay for treatments, which is untrue. is Just Wrong
I would like to quickly summarize what Bill 60 is being put in place to
accomplish. Bill 60’s purpose is to bring the approximately 700 independent fter eight years of Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government, the average down
health facilities across Ontario integrated into our existing health network, Apayment needed to buy a house has doubled to a staggering $45,000. Monthly
which will mandate public accountability for these facilities. As it stands mortgage payments have doubled to over $3,100. In 2015, the average price of rent in
Canada for a 1-bedroom apartment was $973 and today it has reached $1760.
today, should you utilize these facilities for a nonemergency surgery and
you are up-charged for a consultation or an unnecessary upgrade, you as the Nine of ten Canadians looking to buy their first home have given up the dream

patient would have no oversight body to register a complaint with. When Bill of home ownership because they can’t afford the price of rent, while trying to save
60 is enacted, the patient would, in this situation, have the option to register for the massive down payments that are now required. If they do manage to save
enough for a down payment, new homeowners now face skyrocketing mortgage rates,
a formal complaint with the Ombudsman. Bill 60 would also see a “Patients
because of interest rates caused by massive Liberal deficits; a “double whammy” hit

Bill of Rights” enacted, clearly posted, and enforced, upon these independent at the worst time possible for Canadians.

health facilities. Bill 60 would also allow for a more efficient delivery of The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is the federal agency
nonemergency surgeries, for example with cataracts, and total hip and knee responsible for creating reasonably priced housing in Canada. Their performance in
replacements. Instead of tying up a hospital bed for a day surgery by a surgeon recent years has been a failure, to say the least. The CMHC says we need to build 5.8
who may only complete 3 of a single procedure per day, it could be more million new homes by 2030 just to keep up with demand. Simply put, demand for new
homes is not keeping up to anywhere near the actual number of new builds in Canada.
efficiently done in an independent facility that specializes in a handful of

procedures where surgeons are completing 20 or 30 procedures a day. The CMHC data for January 2023 showed new housing starts were at the lowest
level since 2020, down 52% in Toronto and 14% in Vancouver. As a country, we have
Our government has been working extremely hard to address the shortage the lowest number of housing units per thousand residents of any G7 country, and this
of nurses, physicians, and other health care professionals in our health system shortage of supply is driving up prices on all types of homes.
here in Ontario. Since Covid, we have seen too many hospitals with staff By every objective measure, we are in a housing crisis in every part of Canada, and
shortages, and a number of older physicians retiring, with replacements being the CMHC is failing miserably on their own targets to deliver homes for Canadians.
few and far between. Our government has put a focus on promoting health To add insult to injury, we recently found out that federal bureaucrats at the CMHC
received over $27 million taxpayer dollars in “performance bonuses” just last year
care as a career path for young Ontarians, and have put in place a “Learn and alone. To clarify, this is not $27 million in base salaries, but rather in extra bonuses

Stay Grant” to not only encourage young people to enter the health field, but on top of regular wages and benefits. 2,100 employees received a $12,000 bonus on

to commit that once they are certified that they will stay here in our system and average, and we also found out that 100% of CMHC executives got a performance
not leave for another region. With that, unfortunately, it takes 3 to 8 years to see bonus in the last two years.
the results, but in the interim, when Bill 60 is enacted, Ontario will become the Given the disastrous state of housing in Canada, it begs the question: just how low
first province in Canada to enable healthcare workers currently registered on is the bar for performance at the CMHC?

At a time when housing starts needs to double or triple from the current pace,
other provinces and territories to immediately start providing care in Ontario. the CMHC is instead overseeing a stunning decline in housing starts. To give
With all the partial and lack of information on Bill 60 that is floating around,

“performance bonuses” to CMHC bureaucrats with these results is incredibly out of
there will no doubt be some skepticism, and challenging legislation is part of a touch with the reality facing too many Canadians. Furthermore, it is insulting to those
health democracy, which is why all legislation is discussed, debated, and more struggling to buy their first home, and reasonable Canadians would likely agree that

than not are sent to committee for comment before it is passed. If you still have CMHC performance bonuses should be tied to performance and to the number of
lingering questions, please feel free to reach out, I would be happy to address homes built.
any and all concerns around this, and any legislation past, current, or present, Rather than making the housing crisis worse, we must address it with real solutions.
We need to free up federal lands and buildings, speed up building permits, and
in Ontario. The premier and health minister have been clear since day one,
withhold federal funding from cities that refuse to get shovels in the ground and get
Ontarians will always pay for health services with their OHIP Card and not a Canadians into new homes. A Conservative government will do exactly that and bring
credit card. homes Canadians can afford.