MPP Michael Mantha’s News from the Park
Algoma-Manitoulin NDP MPP Michael Mantha
I have had an excellent summer touring Algoma-Manitoulin and attending many community events. Many of our communities continue to out-do themselves with fun music festivals, Pow-Wow’s, fishing derbies, parades and wonderful farmers markets. My family and I always enjoy spending our summer months travelling the riding and meeting with many of you.
This coming Monday the legislature will resume which means I head back to Queen’s Park and have the opportunity to bring back the many issues and concerns I have heard from you over the past few months.
Recently many have expressed concern over the news that the province will be cutting 50 medical residency positions across Ontario. We are alarmed because we are not sure where these cuts are going to take place. The province seems to have made this decision and announcement without any consultation or discussion with the medical field before the decision was made. We are concerned that these cuts could seriously impact northern Ontario.
The two-year residency placements that conclude a doctor’s training play a key role in the Northern Ontario School of Medicine’s strategy to recruit and retain doctors in the North. Any reduction in those spaces in the North will have a much greater impact than they would if made in the south.
Any sort of reduction will most definitely impact our ability to recruit doctors in the North. Southern Ontario doesn’t face the same challenges with recruiting and retaining doctors as we do here.
I will return to Queen’s Park and bring this up with the Minister and express residents’ concerns over the state of Northern Health Care.
Overwhelmingly across northern Ontario, hydro costs continue to dominate discussions. When we look to our neighbouring province Quebec we can see that their hydro model demonstrates why hydro must remain public. Québec’s public hydro system delivering electricity at rates less than half what Ontarians pay, Premier Kathleen Wynne should use her joint cabinet meeting with the Québec government to learn why Hydro One must not be sold.
Ontario continues to suffer from high electricity rates for decades under private owners, Québécois in the 1960s fought to claim their hydro system on behalf of the public, and they have enjoyed the benefits ever since. It’s disappointing that Wynne has gone in the opposite direction, turning her back on Ontario’s proud history of public hydro to sell our oldest and most important public asset for a short-term, one-time gain.
The NDP will continue to fight this and demand the government keep Hydro assets in the public’s hands.
We want to hear your concerns. I hope that you will continue to share them with us.
As always, please feel free to contact my office about this issue, or any other provincial matters. You can reach my constituency office by email at mmantha-co@ndp.on.ca or by phone at 705-461-9710/1-800-831-1899.
MPP Michael Mantha, Algoma-Manitoulin
