Tag: Waterloo Region Health Coalition

Waterloo Region Health Coalition and Ontario Health Coalition Referendum on Hospital Privatization, Friday and Saturday, 26 and 27 May 2023

People’s Referendum to stop the privatization of Ontario’s public hospitals planned Friday & Saturday

Almost a thousand voting stations across Ontario will be staffed by thousands of volunteers in a massive effort to force the Ford government to respect democratic process and input on their hospital privatization plans.

A map listing all voting stations across the province is available online at https://publichospitalvote.ca/find-voting-station:

Google Map of Southern Ontario with colourful markers showing locations of polling stations for the referendum

On the website, you can zoom in for details, and a list by region is below the map. Media are invited to see the voting taking place at voting stations across Ontario.

  • Online voting is also available for all Ontario residents at PublicHospitalVote.ca
  • Voting closes on Saturday, 27 May 2023 at midnight.
  • At time of writing, more than 160,000 votes have been received online and in advance polls.

Province-wide results will be announced outside Queen’s Park on Wednesday 31 May 2023 at 10:00am.

A massive pile of ballots from the people’s referendum will be brought in from across Ontario and piled in front of the Legislature to be delivered to the government.

Local health coalitions across the province will be counting ballots on Saturday evening 27 May 2023 or Sunday 28 May 2023, announcing results locally on Tuesday, 30 May 2023.

Waterloo Region:

  • Vote counting will take place at the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario-Waterloo Region Office 610 Wabanaki Drive, Kitchener, on Sunday 28 May 2023 from Noon to 5:00pm.
  • Vote results will be announced on Tuesday, 30 May 2023 at 8:30am outside the Main Entrance to Grand River Hospital, 835 King Street West, Kitchener.

Media contacts to view vote counting and receive local/province-wide results:

Natalie Mehra, Executive Director, Ontario Health Coalition

Jim Stewart, Chair, Waterloo Region Health Coalition

For other regions see Key Contacts for the Referendum to Stop Hospital Privatization on the Public Hospital Vote website.

Two Pickets for the Ontario Nurses’ Association, Thursday 23 Feb 2023

The Better Staffing Care Wages | ONA Ontario Nurses' Association (pink and white lettering on a black background. "Better" is tilted on its side so it's an adjective for all three of "Staffing", "Care", "Wages")Ontario Nurses’ Association, the Waterloo Region Health Coalition | Promoting Public Healthcare for all (a red umbrella covering black and red lettering)Waterloo Region Health Coalition and the (a yellow 5-sided shape over an orange parallelogram, separated by a diagonal space, all on a grey background)KW Council of Canadians are collaborating in support of all actions to counter the Ontario government health care policies.

Please join one or both of these pickets if you can.

Two Pickets

The Waterloo Region Health Coalition has confirmed that Thursday’s pickets are on, regardless of weather.

Where: St Mary’s General Hospital
Location: 911 Queen’s Boulevard, Kitchener Map 1
When: Thursday 23 February 2023, One Hour commencing at 11:00am until Noon
Contact:

Jennifer Cepukus,
ONA Local 139 Coordinator/Bargaining Unit President
Grand River Hospital local139@ona.org

Where: Grand River General Hospital
Location: 835 King Street West, Kitchener Map 2
When: Thursday 23 February 2023, One Hour commencing at 12:30pm until 1:30pm
Contact:

Deanna Dowsett,
ONA Local 55 Coordinator/Bargaining Unit President
local055@ona.org
   or
Stephanie Hamill
ONA Local 55 Vice President
St. Mary’s General Hospital
l55vpsmgh@ona.org

Please join us on the Picket Line to demonstrate to our Nurses just how much we value them

Lets all join in the Fight against the Privatization of our Public Health Care system

More information on pickets across Ontario: https://www.ona.org/bettercare/feb23/

Listen to CKMS 102.7 FM Radio Waterloo | Community Connections (black and purple lettering on a teal background)CKMS Community Connections for 20 February 2023 with Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition.

Protests to Protect Public Medicare – MARCH to “Save our Hospitals”

Jim Stewart of The Waterloo Region Health Coalition writes:

MARCH to “Save our Hospitals” & Million Medicare Defenders

Thank you very much to all who came to our Waterloo Region Town Hall. We discussed how to make the fight visible, to show real resistance to the Ford government’s refusal to take urgent action on the hospital crisis while at the same time privatizing our hospitals. We must come together to share our concern and make it very clear that privatization is not the solution to our hospital crisis.

Now it is time to make this clear to Ford and demand urgent action to fix the hospital crisis and stop privatization. Join our protests in Waterloo Region.

If you were not able to make it to any of the Town Halls the recordings are available on our YouTube channel: Waterloo Hospital Emergency Town Hall Meeting

As outlined below, the first stage of our plan is to hold a major protest to show our support and solidarity with our hospital staff and leaders and also send a strong message to the Ford government. Please share it widely with everyone you know and help to make it a huge show of strength. Thank you! ❤ We will look forward to seeing you all there.

The call-out is below.

The Ford government has done almost nothing to fix the crisis in our hospitals.

Force Ford to act urgently to support our public hospitals now and stop privatizing their services!

Region of Waterloo

Where: Waterloo Public Square
Location: 75 King Street South, Waterloo, Ontario Map
When: Noon on Monday, 12 December, 2022.

We will March to the Grand River Hospital in Kitchener across from CTV News.

If you are able to make it please contact: Jim Stewart at waterlooregionhealthcoalition@gmail.com

Collage of people holding placards and protest signs
Ottawa Protest

You can also bring signs and messages to Doug Ford to finally take urgent action to restore and rebuild our public hospital services, STOP privatizing them.

Also, please consider becoming one of our million Medicare Defenders. This is not a membership list and you can click NO on the registration and we will not contact you or use your information for anything. This is to tell Doug Ford in no uncertain terms that he does not have a mandate from Ontarians to privatize our public health care. We need to get as many people as possible to scare the Ford Government away from their plans to privatize and do nothing to help the crisis in our hospitals.

You can become a Medicare Defender at https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/

You can also help by:

Become One of Our Million | Public Medicare Defenders | Sign Up | Spread The Word | Take Our Survey | Show Up | Join us at www.OntarioHealthCoalition.ca | Ontario Health Coalition (pastel coloured text with icons on a faded background of people holding hands in solidarity)
Thank You.

–Jim Stewart, Chair
Waterloo Region Health Coalition