Saving money, but crippling communities: Gélinas rips Liberals after laundry job losses
Outsourcing laundry to Hamilton is short-term gain with negative, long-term impact says MPP
Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Gélinas says she's concerned about the effects of Ministry of Health directives on communities like Greater Sudbury.
Through a freedom of information request, Gélinas obtained the documents Health Sciences North used to make their decision on outsourcing hospital laundry services.
She didn't like what she saw.
"I wanted to see if, in [HSN's] decision...they only looked at the financial sector, like the ministry tells them to do," Gélinas said. "Or did they take into account the health of our community? And they did not."
And that mandate to fix the bottom line forces organizations — like HSN and City Hall — to make decisions based on money rather than the good of the public.
- Sudbury laundry workers to be laid off after hospital strikes new deal with Hamilton company
- Sudbury to lose $6.5M with hospital laundry workers layoffs: report
While Gélinas acknowledges the centralization of hospital services to third parties can sometimes save money in the short term, it comes with a cost.
"And that cost is always northern and rural Ontario to pay," Gélinas said. "The cost means that we lose those services. We lose, right now, our laundry but many other hospitals have lost other services. And it always goes to the big centre down south."
And as those services are not hospital-run, they are shielded from any transparency and accountability, Gélinas said.