Hi there, folks are welcome to follow the link below to send an email message to the Premier and opposition leaders in Ontario about the budget. There is a template letter to send if you are in a rush or you can edit the letter to add your own points and stories.

Thanks, Lynn Anne


-----Original Message-----
From: RNAO Home Office [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wed 4/4/2012 4:50 PM
Subject: RNAO Action Alert: Urge Premier McGuinty not to balance the budget on the backs of the poor																													  [REF5360031380012099546]
 
Action Alert: Urge Premier McGuinty not to balance the budget on the backs of the poor


April 4, 2012 

Last week's 2012 Ontario Budget put short-term savings ahead of the health of the province's most vulnerable in a bid to cut the deficit. Join nurses across the province in telling Premier Dalton McGuinty, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath that balancing the budget on the backs of the poor is unfair.

By freezing social assistance rates, delaying increases to the Ontario Child Benefit, and failing to raise the minimum wage (or even appoint the commission promised in last year's budget), the 2012 Ontario budget hurts those already struggling to get by on dangerously low incomes. This is bad health policy and will result in higher tax payer's costs.

Nurses know there are better solutions. 

While the RNAO supports the government's delay in the planned corporate tax cut, we also support the opposition's proposal for a new tax bracket for personal incomes over $500,000 per year that would raise $570 million a year in government revenues to help those who need it most. Let's invest this new revenue into improved social assistance rates and child benefits. 

Another way to bring the deficit under control is by improving integration between social programs and health services. Let's address the unnecessary duplication between Community Care Access Centres, hospital discharge coordinators, and home care agencies. It increases costs and diverts money that could be better spent on direct care for patients at home by nurses working to full scope. Expanding access to primary care by investing in more nurse practitioners across the system, including NP-led clinics, community health centres, family health teams and home care, is a sound investment that will improve health and reduce unnecessary ER visits.

Please act now by letting Premier McGuinty and our provincial leaders know that you feel balancing the deficit on the backs of the most vulnerable in our communities is wrong. Email <http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=3689&SiteNodeID=403&BL_ExpandID=>  the letter below to Premier Dalton McGuinty, PC leader Tim Hudak, and NDP leader Andrea Horwath. You can edit the letter to share examples from your nursing practice and/or life experiences on how making poverty worse will increase ill-health on those already struggling and increase demand on the health-care system.

Please share this action alert <http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=3689&SiteNodeID=403&BL_ExpandID=>  with your colleagues, neighbours, friends, and family and ask them to email as well. 

Link: http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=3689&SiteNodeID=403&BL_ExpandID= <http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=3689&SiteNodeID=403&BL_ExpandID=> 


Resources


Baumann, A. (2012). Don't compromise health of economically vulnerable. The Record. April 2, 2012 <http://www.therecord.com/opinion/letters/article/697736--don-t-compromise-health-of-economically-vulnerable> 


Doctors for Fair Taxation (2012). Doctors say tax us! Ontario is worth it. Toronto Star, April 2, 2012. <http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1155266--doctors-say-tax-us-ontario-is-worth-it> 


Ferguson, R. (2012). Ontario budget: Make the rich pay, NDP demands, Toronto Star, April 3, 2012. 
<http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1155861--ontario-budget-make-the-rich-pay-ndp-demands> 

Grinspun, D. (2012). Letter to the Editor, Ontario Budget: Hunger Games. Toronto Star, April 3, 2012. <http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters/article/1155350--ontario-budget-hunger-games> 


Health Providers Against Poverty (2012). Media Release: Health Providers Against Poverty Warns Today's Austerity Budget Will Cost Ontario by Worsening the Health of Ontario's Most Vulnerable. March 27, 2012. <http://www.healthprovidersagainstpoverty.ca/> 

Jarvi, K. (2012). Ontario sleepwalking over a precipice. Hamilton Spectator, February 15, 2012. <http://www.thespec.com/opinion/columns/article/671371--ontario-sleepwalking-over-a-precipice> 


Mackenzie, H. & Shillington, R. (2009). Canada's Quiet Bargain: The Benefits of Public Spending. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. <http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/canadas-quiet-bargain> 


RNAO (2012) Media release: Nurses condemn attack on vulnerable persons to rein in spending. March 27, 2012 <http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=3684&SiteNodeID=524&BL_ExpandID=> 


Scallan, N. (2012). Toronto doctor worries budget cuts will affect poor patients the most. Toronto Star, March 27, 2012 <http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1152827--toronto-doctor-worries-budget-cuts-will-affect-poor-patients-the-most> 


Campaigns

Canadians for Tax Fairness <http://www.taxfairness.ca/> 


Health Providers Against Poverty <http://www.healthprovidersagainstpoverty.ca/> 


Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario, March 1, 2012 Advocacy Day at Queen's Park <http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=2777&SiteNodeID=472&BL_ExpandID> 

 

Please share this action alert <http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=3689&SiteNodeID=403&BL_ExpandID=>  with your colleagues, neighbours, friends, and family and ask them to email as well. 

Link: http://www.rnao.org/Page.asp?PageID=122&ContentID=3689&SiteNodeID=403&BL_ExpandID=


Sent from RNAO Home Office, 158 Pearl St. Toronto ON M5H 1L3. Add us to your address book by visiting http://www.rnao.org/RNAOvcard.vcf

If you have any questions regarding the authenticity of e-mail you have received from Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) please do not hesitate to contact us at 1 800 268 7199 or 416 599 1925. Please visit us at our website at http://www.rnao.org/privacy <http://www.rnao.org/privacy>  for our privacy policy. 

If you DO NOT wish to receive emails from RNAO please visit http://www.rnao.org/unsubscribe

K. Scott, RNAO 

To leave, manage or join list: https://listserv.yorku.ca/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=sdoh&A=1