MINDEN HILLS, ON – The wardens of Eastern Ontario are trying to address healthcare reform with a new proposal.
Two weeks removed from the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus meeting with MPPs, Haliburton County Warden Liz Danielson called a special meeting of council to vote on whether or not to support lobbying the province to allow the creation of an Eastern Ontario Health Team.
Danielson explained to her colleagues around the county table that during the EOWC meeting, healthcare reform was one of the biggest concerns for their collective and individual communities.
According to Danielson, the EOWC passed a resolution to send correspondence to the provincial government proposing the health team.
Aside from the health team proposal, the resolution called for the province to establish boundaries for the public health units as a way to protect the individual needs of communities.
The EOWC believes that group small and rural communities in Health Units with larger more metropolitan communities will “ draw resources and attention away from, and be detrimental to, the public health needs of rural and small urban municipalities”.
Answering a question from Minden Hills Mayor Brent Devolin, Danielson explained that proposed health team boundaries and borders would mirror those of the Caucus.
Although the councillors supported the proposal and the resolution attached the proposal, it will still need to be sent off to the province for review before a decision gets made.
