For Immediate Release
23 March, 2023
Today’s provincial budget is titled “Your Health. Our Priority.” NDP Leader Jim Dinn says there is an alarming lack of information to back up that claim.
“Healthcare should be a major priority – that’s what the NDP has been saying for years. Does this budget convince me it is the Liberal priority? It does not,” he said today.
“One of the major calls of Health Accord NL was for government to address the social determinants of health to keep people from developing chronic conditions in the first place.
“There’s no commitment here to increasing access to healthy food or reducing poverty,” said Dinn. “The government is trumpeting minimal increases to the Income Supplement, Seniors’ Benefit, and Income Support, when in fact the people who receive those benefits will still have significantly less buying power because of inflation.
“I see no funding to implement the Human Resources Plan for Health. There’s no meaningful effort to address the crisis of space in long-term care.
“Last night I attended a very successful forum on healthcare in St. John’s. In that packed room we saw the fallout from government’s refusal to take a serious long-term look at the issues.
“They have to focusing on retention and start treating workers with respect so they stay as valuable health care employees. We have to stop the creeping privatization of health care – every dollar that goes to corporate profits is one that doesn’t go to patient care.
“And let’s implement all the recommendations of Health Accord NL before it’s completely watered down by political considerations.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca