Actions speak louder than words.

As much as this adage applies to the Ontario McGuinty government and its repeated broken election promises on health care, it also applies to us.

Prior to the last election it looked like we were getting somewhere on key health care issues. The government had begun to stop the era of cuts and privatization that were the legacy of the Harris government. In fact, McGuinty made cornerstone to his last election campaign the promise to uphold and protect public non-profit health care, along with education. He promised, on the front page of the Toronto Star, quick institution of minimum care standards in our long-term care facilities.

But almost immediately after the election promises were abandoned and arrogance set in.

The Health Minister responded with a personal attack on the Ontario Health Coalition after our research report documented the ballooning costs of the privatized P3 Brampton hospital had led to serious bed cuts in the community.

After a 1500 person protest in Hamilton over loss of non-profit services and lay-offs of their home nurses, McGuinty issued a moratorium on the poverty-creating policy of privatization and competitive bidding in homecare. But after promising a serious policy review he refused public consultation. McGuintyâe(TM)s office has since sent the Health Coalition a letter indicating that he intends to bring back competitive bidding, threatening ten-year privatization.

Across Ontario hospital restructuring is resulting in the largest clinical and support service cuts in a decade. Twelve privatized P3 hospitals are in process and the Minister responsible for P3 privatization âe” David Caplan âe” has now been named Health Minister. For the first time since the Harris years, two local hospitals are being closed. In Midland, the government is trying to wipe out 2,400 community memberships and a 100 year history of a democratically-elected hospital board. Many of the small town emergency rooms in Southwestern Ontario are under threat of closure. In Ajax-Pickering, 200 nurses and support staff are being laid off and all the mental health beds are being moved out of town.

After McGuintyâe(TM)s unequivocal promise to bring in minimum care standards in nursing homes within three months of winning the election, the government has reneged on this promise.

Actions speak louder than words.

It is not acceptable for a government in a democracy to pursue privatization in homecare, long-term care and hospitals while running election campaigns promising to protect public non-profit health care.

It is not acceptable to wipe out democratically elected hospital boards and hide behind unelected regional health boards while cutting needed hospital services in local communities.

It is not acceptable to pour money unaccountably into for-profit companies and financiers for P3 hospitals and long-term care facilities.

We have lobbied. We have produced the reports. But it is clear that asking isnâe(TM)t enough. It is time for us to make our own actions speak louder than words.

Activists have been successful at protecting Ontarioâe(TM)s single-tier public health system through relentless vigilance and action. We have stopped all the for-profit MRI/CT clinics, the for-profit cancer treatment centre and the proposed two-tier clinics. We have rolled back the P3s âe” in the number of the deals and in the scope of privatization. And, we have forced promises on long term care and the moratorium on competitive bidding in home care.

We know that we can win significant victories, and hold off the worst of restructuring and privatization. But these have been the result of major organizing, protest and action.

We are calling on Ontarians everywhere to join us in protest on Saturday, September 27.