Health care workers, teachers and parents of children with autism all showed to a rally outside Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli’s office yesterday. Henri Giroux, president of the North Bay and District Labour Council says the province is planning to privatize health care and that’ll mean job losses. He says it’s happened before under a PC government and they want to let Nipissing residents know what’s going on. He says they aren’t fear mongering as the government claims.

“The last government that told us we were fear mongering was the Harris government. We said there would be a p3 hospital built here and there was. We’re not fear mongering. We’re ringing the bell saying we don’t want our health care to be privatized and that’s what’s happening,” he says.

Glen Hodgson is president of District 4 of the Ontario Secondary Schools Teachers Federation. He says their big concern is job cuts.

“They have chosen to make these cuts. When you look at the cuts they’re proposing they will be devestating especially for small and rural boards like the Near North,” he says.

Hodgson says they”re looking at a 25 % staff reduction in the north but the impact will be felt in the classroom too.

“We know this is bad for our students and their learning environments. This is going to create class sizes of 40 to 50 potentially. It’s going to be impossible to run small or rural schools. I can’t imagine how we’re going to be able to operate all three schools in North Bay,” Hodgson says.

Filed under: Henri Giroux, job cuts, OSSTF, Vic Fedeli