“I don’t get a tax bailout; do you?” retiree asks at Hamilton town hall forum

The Commission on Quality Public Services and Tax Fairness was told Wednesday night that standards inside Ontario’s long-term care facilities could be dramatically improved if the provincial government went after untold millions of tax dollars that corporations conveniently defer.

“Canadian corporations get R & D loans and tax bailouts,” said retired long-term care worker Frans Brinkman. He also told the Commission at the town hall forum in Hamilton. “I don’t get a tax bailout; do you?

“In fact the Canada Revenue Agency will harass me for one unpaid dollar in taxes. They don’t treat corporations the same way.”

Brinkman’s point was this: the needs of our elderly and vulnerable residents of long-term care facilities are going unmet while governments treat corporations with kid gloves when it comes to recovering tax revenues.

Brinkman cited a recent study by InfoGlobe that reported as much as $50 billion may be lost in unreported tax revenue.

He also pointed to several shortcomings inside long-term care facilities. The sector goes unregulated, unlike the requirements placed on doctors, nurses and other health professionals. More and more workers opt to gain their training – often in less than two months – at fast-buck private schools instead of proper training at community colleges like Mohawk in Hamilton. And, unlike some countries in Europe like Denmark and Sweden, where the majority of long-term care facilities are publically-owned, in Ontario the service is firmly in unregulated private hands.

“Let’s hope this Commission can help change that,” Brinkman told Commission Chair Judy Wasylycia-Leis.

The town hall forum was held in the ornate Workers Art and Heritage Centre in downtown Hamilton and attracted a full room of more than 50 interested observers.

OPSEU 1^st vice-president and treasurer, Eddy Almeida, a Hamilton correctional officer, said the province is squandering millions of tax dollars through increased policing costs because it has stripped away the bulk of services inside correctional facilities that once attempted to rehabilitate offenders.

“We’ve become little more than a warehousing service,” Almeida said. “It’s come to the point where we are tossing inmates back on the street when their sentence is up and they end up back in the criminal justice system because we’ve cut back so dramatically on programs that once attempted to turn these people around. We call them ‘rounders’ because they end up re-offending and back in the system.”

Anne Pereira, a probation officer with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services in Hamilton, told the Commission years of downsizing and cutbacks in services has left a permanent mark on the ability to turnaround troubled teens.

“When the provincial government introduced its Common Sense Revolution and their subsequent variations on a theme, they began to measure the cost of everything and sought to define the ‘metric’ rather than enhance services. What they failed to take into account is the value of the services,” Pereira said.

She reminded the Commission, “public services work. They are not a business. Work has value; businesses have a bottom line.” Pereira called on the provincial government to provide “equitable, high-quality public services to address the disadvantages, barriers and oppression that face so many citizens today.”

Another speaker, Lucy Morton, told the Commission how competitive bidding has all but crippled the efficacy of the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON).

“There is no evidence that competitive bidding works,” said Morton. “Ontario is the only province to do it this way. Clearly there are alternatives.

“There is plenty of evidence to suggest it costs more, disrupts the lives of patients and discourages professionals and support staff from working in home care,” said Morton.

Two advocates for ODSP clients also spoke to the Commission.

Tom Cooper, manager of community engagement for the Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty, and Laura Cattari, an ODSP recipient, said the program, which includes 62,000 ODSP and Ontario Works recipients in the Hamilton area, is failing to meet the needs of those it serves.

Cattari said she can expect to live 21 years less than other Hamiltonians who live in different parts of the city, according to a 2010 study on the health impacts of poverty. She urged citizens to speak out and be a voice to protect services she relies on because “I am not just a client and patient. I am a human being too.”

The Commission’s next town hall forum and public hearing is scheduled for Windsor Feb. 2 and 3.