Parry Sound-Muskoka NDP

Solidarity

Haiti quakes, and five hundred
factory workers die at once
as one, in crushing
chaos.

Less fortunate
the confined alive and undiscovered
in prisons of impossible wealth and poverty
an economy shaken
forsaken in the rubble
out of reach of healing herbs and
mambos singing.

Haitians call God
Bon Dieu Bon – meaning
God’s enfolding goodness before and after.
Before and after the ground opened
they know
they believe in
moments of union with God spirit

while we in the West talk of God
and debate whether caritas is
mere charity without justice,
is better than demanding love, or God forbid,
compassion, that other breaker of walls.

“The best things come
from decay,” Haitians say,
true life from false shelter,
undeserved pain.

Is there hope then for us, slaves
to our imprisoning desire
to be safe and secure?

_____________________________

Dianna Allen, Feb 7, 2010
Presented at Haiti Relief Benefits - Parry Sound and Rosseau - Feb 26 and 27.
Proceeds to Doctors without Borders.

Dianna reading the poem

After eight months on the picket line, Vale INCO workers are still battling one of the most profitable corporations in the world. Fighting for their pensions and seniority rights, over 3500 employees are on strike.

Join the “Bridging the Gap” Solidarity Rally in Sudbury, March 22, 2010 at 4 p.m. The Steelworkers, OFL and CLC are organizing buses from across the province. For information on buses contact Laurie Hardwick at the OFL at 416 443-7657.

The Make Poverty History people have joined the call to rescind the Kairo cuts: Make Poverty History

This is a very active group campaigning to eliminate poverty worldwide; well worth our attention.

Dennis Gruending suggests that the CIDA cuts to KAIROS’s third-world projects are related to KAIROS’s criticism of the tar sands development. He also gives more background on KAIROS. All in all, he writes an excellent blog: Gruending’s Blog

Finally! It’s nice to see Andrea Howarth and the NDP getting some good press in the Toronto Star: Coyle’s Article

On the National Day of Remembrance & Action on Violence Against Women, several groups in Orillia incuding the Orillia Muskoka Labour Council are holding a Candlelight Vigil at 1035 Mississaga St W. (Aladdin’s Banquet Hall), Orillia at 7pm on Sunday Dec 6th.

CIDA CUTS TO KAIROS WILL DEVASTATE HUMAN RIGHTS WORK OVERSEAS

KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives

Their 2009-2013 proposal was developed within two priority sectors of CIDA: promoting good governance (human rights) and advancing ecological sustainability (reducing the impact of climate change and addressing land degradation). It was approved at every level of CIDA before being declined on November 30.

For further info see: KAIROS News

KAIROS asks us to contact our MP, Tony Clement (clement.t@parl.gc.ca)

As well as:
The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, pm@pmo-cpm.gc.ca,
The Hon. Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, oda.b@parl.gc.ca, and
Margaret Biggs, President of CIDA, Margaret.Biggs@acdi-cida.gc.ca

requesting a reversal of the decision.

Please copy your letters to KAIROS at info@kairoscanada.org.

As opposition to the Harper/McGuinty HST grows, Ontario’s Liberal government has finally agreed to a public consultation, but only in the GTA. And in Ottawa, the federal Conservatives will present a motion to move forward with sales-tax harmonization. The federal Conservatives see harmonization as a way to reduce corporate taxes, and plan to give away our own tax dollars — $4.3-billion to Ontario and $1.6-billion to B.C. — as incentives to make the switch.. Isn’t it time the North also had its say on the impact of the HST?

This massive tax shift will hurt consumers, nonprofits, and small businesses. It will actually reduce Ontario’s total revenue by giving away those new HST dollars in tax cuts to big business. This is the last thing we need in an economic downturn, especially in Parry Sound-Muskoka where the average income is almost 20% less than in the rest of Ontario, and where the numbers on social assistance and using food banks are skyrocketing.

Small businesses here in Parry Sound and all over the province are worried about the impact of harmonizing the federal goods-and-services tax with Ontario’s sales tax. A survey of 2,991 members of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business found 75 per cent were concerned “customers will not like higher tax rates on some of my firm’s goods (and) services.” (Toronto Star, September, 2009). They fear customers will spend less, or be driven away altogether in search of an underground economy. At the same time, business expenses like travel and accountants’ fees will increase. Businesses that are teetering on the brink worry that the HST will push them over the edge.

The HST on gasoline will be a double hit for Northerners because we already pay more for gasoline and have fewer alternatives for transportation. As well, the HST will impact Northerners more on heating and electrical costs than people living in southern Ontario.

The NDP has a petition campaign to stop the HST and to date have more than 70,000 signatures opposing the harmonized tax. Andrea Horwath, leader of the Ontario NDP, has noted during her travels in the North that Northerners overall are not pleased with the lack of consideration they are getting from McGuinty’s government, whether that’s on forestry and mining jobs, access to health care, closure of hospitals in smaller communities, or school closures.

We all know taxes are necessary, but they must be fair and equitable. Taxes support health care, provide income assistance to pensioners and the unemployed, and are invested in education, training and job creation. Increasing costs for housing, food, heating and gas will hurt the most vulnerable – seniors, the unemployed, the working poor, all those already on the verge of financial ruin.

It’s time to call on the provincial government to hold a Northern consultation.

Dianna Allen

Federal NDP Candidate, Parry Sound Muskoka
167 Blackwater Rd
RR1, Parry Sound ON P2A 2W7

(The following op-ed by Dianna Allen was originally published in the Parry Sound North Star last February.)

A crisis is brewing in health care. In every region of Ontario, hospital cuts are affecting more than 70% of hospitals of every size. And there is good reason for residents in the Muskoka-Parry Sound District to be concerned, because small and rural hospitals are expected to be among the hardest hit.

In the NE LHIN (Local Health Integration Network), all 26 hospitals, including the West Parry Sound Health Centre, will receive an inadequate 2.1% budget “increase” that is actually a cut, because it is too low to match the rate of inflation. The budget also ignores the growing need for health care within our aging population, expected to double in 25 years, and the poor health status of so many in the region. Thousands of jobs are on the line across Ontario, not to mention the economic wellbeing and health status of affected communities. And all this despite evidence from the 1990s that restructuring may not save a dime, but actually cost tax payers more while delivering less.

Nevertheless, WPSHC has signed the mandatory accountability agreement with the NE LHIN that puts the Board of Trustees on the hook to stay within budget or face hefty fines. Democratically elected Boards that resist making service cuts can find themselves replaced by an appointed “hospital supervisor” accountable only to the Ministry of Health through the LHIN.

What kinds of cuts are possible? In Petrolia doctors are threatening to leave town if the Erie-St. Clair LHIN decides to close their Emergency Room. Two doctors have resigned in protest and others have submitted resignations effective in March if the LHIN does not commit to keep the Emergency Room open.

Closer to home, the board of Muskoka Algonquin Health Care (MAHC), struggling with a $2.3 million deficit, is contemplating shutting down an ER and/or consolidating services like obstetrics from two sites (Huntsville and Bracebridge) to one. Closing down or radically changing the day-to-day services of the Burk’s Falls and District Health Centre is also a possibility, despite the dependency of a sizeable retirement community on its services. The health centre currently has a $1-million annual operating shortfall.

Farther south, the Niagara Health System, with more than a $17 million operating deficit, is planning the most significant cuts to rural hospitals since the Harris era of restructuring in the 1990s. On the agenda are removal of Emergency Departments, surgical services, all acute care beds, and possibly complex continuing care beds from Port Colborne and Fort Erie.

These cuts and restructurings are caused by the provincial government’s decision to set hospital budgets too low to match rates of inflation and hospital utilization – despite promises from Premier McGuinty and former Minister of Health George Smitherman not to close small and rural hospitals. The results can only be loss of jobs and patient services in local communities, greater distances to travel to regional centres that may not have the capacity to respond to escalating needs, increasing costs to municipalities for transportation and EMS, and poorer health outcomes, including preventable deaths.

These alarming developments reflect a government hostile to, and with no real understanding of, health care. Fortunately, protests are mounting from concerned citizens. Town hall meetings have been held or are scheduled in Hamilton, Wallaceburg, Windsor, Strathroy-Caradoc, Petrolia, and Trenton. The mayor of Fort Erie, Douglas S. Martin, has sent a letter to all municipalities in Ontario outlining the difficulties in the Niagara region and asking for support. In particular, he emphasizes the importance of elected hospital boards for public accountability, transparency and access to information.

Using LHINs, the McGuinty government has seriously weakened hospitals and their boards. They are expected to plan “integrations” and submit budgets within totally unreasonable timelines that provide no opportunity for community involvement or input. Indeed, no community submissions or advance notification of the public are required in negotiated service agreements between a LHIN and its hospital. No deficit spending is permitted. LHINs do not have the authority to raise money beyond the amounts they receive from the Ministry of Health. Significantly, LHINs are not prevented from shifting services from the public to the private sector. (To learn more about LHINs, visit www.cavalluzzo.com for the law firm’s working guide to LHIN legislation.)

In such a climate every community needs a strong, united voice and a clear vision of what they expect from their health system – relatively full service local hospitals, regulated and adequately staffed long term care facilities, and care close to home. Make your voices heard. Write letters to Premier McGuinty. Sign petitions in support of communities at risk of losing their hospitals. Attend town hall meetings that are being organized by the Muskoka-Parry Sound District branch of the Ontario Health Coalition.

Don’t wait until your services are gone to start fighting.

The Ontario Health Coalition has been systematically tracking the growing number of hospital restructurings and closures. Information is available on their web site (see below) that will provide much more detail than can be recounted here.

* * * * * * *

The Ontario Health Coalition is a network of over 400 grassroots community organizations representing virtually all areas of Ontario. Our primary goal is to actively engage in making public policy related to health care and healthy communities. Through public education and support for public debate, we work to honour and strengthen the principles of the Canada Health Act. For more information visit our web site: www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca

Dianna Allen is Chair of the Muskoka-Parry Sound District Health Coalition. Email: mpsdhealthcoalition@gmail.com

Dianna Allen is a passionate fighter for human rights and has the experience of ‘putting her mouth where her money is’ as a contributor to the Romanow Commission to protect universal health care. Allen uses her considerable intelligence and expertise to bear on issues of social justice, such as the anti-poverty committee to which she is committed in bringing about change.

Katerina Fretwell
poet, artist, former registered social worker

Carl Wirth sends this notice about the Canadian Labour International Film Festival in Orillia on November 28th between 1 and 4pm at the Georgian College Memorial Ave Theatre. It’s free, and there are some excellent films to be shown, including “Poor No More” where Mary Walsh leads on a search for solutions to poverty. Here’s their pdf: filmfestival2

Dianna Allen attended Remembrance Day ceremonies in Parry Sound and layed a wreath from the NDP Riding Association at the Cenotaph. See the photo section for some pictures.

We’re having an informal get-together on Sunday, Dec 6, 1-3 pm, where you will be able to meet with our new Federal Candidate, Dianna Allen, and other members of the Riding and the Riding Executive. Enjoy Sara Hay’s chili, assorted salads, breads, drinks and desserts, all for only a $15 donation (kids free).

The event will be held at Sara and Dennis Hay’s farm, 1185 Doe Lake Rd, Gravenhurst. Doe Lake Road is the northern-most Gravenhurst exit off Hwy 11; head east a couple of kilometres to the farm.

If possible, give Sara a call (705-687-5139) or send her an email (sardenhay@gmail.com) if you plan to come.

(Donations larger than $20 are ok too, but they must be by cheque made out to the Parry Sound Muskoka Federal NDP Riding Association, and will get you a tax receipt.)

Dianna Allen, Federal NDP Candidate

- Federal NDP candidate for Parry Sound Muskoka in the next election

- Federal NDP candidate for Nipissing-Timiskaming in the 2008 election

- Married, 59 years of age, and step-Mom to a 13-yr-old boy whose primary home is in Tennessee. She comes from a family of farmers, grew up in Alliston, studied and worked in Toronto, and now resides on Blackwater Lake, McKellar Twp, where she pursues her life-long interest in writing, and owns/operates a B&B

- Poverty reduction activist and health care activist: co-chair, District of Parry Sound Poverty Reduction Network; former co-chair, Muskoka Parry Sound branch of the Ontario Health Coalition. Submitted report on research misconduct in a public-private health care joint venture to the Romanow Commission. A passion for social justice grounded in faith perspective as well as childhood lived experience of poverty

- On the board of the Parry Sound-Muskoka NDP Riding Association, and is its health care critic. Member, McKellar Library Board

- BA in History (Canadian/US) & Sociology, University of Toronto; Master of Library Science, University of Toronto; completed nearly half of an MA in Ministry & Spirituality, University of Toronto before moving north.

Work history:
- RN for over 20 yrs: ER, critical care, hospital supervisor, community care.
- Information and research analyst for a multinational pharmaceutical company: responsible for health policy/health reform/health informatics research; and project management of community-based health outcomes research.
- Researcher for Medecins sans Frontiers/Doctors without Borders, Access to Essential Medicines campaign, reporting on the Canadian pharmaceutical industry and trends in medical research
- Quality Analyst, Hospital for Sick Children’s Quality & Risk Management

Anti-poverty activist calls for affordable housing, decent wages, pension reform

BRACEBRIDGE – Federal New Democrat candidate for Parry Sound - Muskoka, Dianna Allen, knows the realities of this northern riding – a vanishing manufacturing sector, poverty wages, skyrocketing applications for woefully inadequate social assistance, and almost no affordable housing.

A small business owner, poverty reduction and health care activist, and former research analyst in the multinational pharmaceutical industry, Ms Allen also campaigned for the NDP during the 2008 federal election in Nipissing-Timiskaming, a riding with difficulties similar to its neighbours’. Now she is ready and able to address the challenges in her home riding.

“While we face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” states Ms. Allen, “our Industry Minister speaks with colossal insensitivity about ‘beautification’ for the G8 in the face of widespread poverty. Let us remember that this already-beautiful region has had one of the lowest average incomes for decades, now aggravated by huge losses in manufacturing. That is the legacy of successive Conservative and Liberal governments. Recent stimulus spending has not altered that basic reality. Worse still, Liberal and Conservative quibbling over signatures and party logos on government cheques trivializes the suffering of the impoverished in Parry Sound-Muskoka.”

Ms Allen has participated in community forums throughout the Parry Sound District over the summer, and knows the face of poverty. People are going hungry. Seniors and people with disabilities live in drafty, substandard housing that they can’t afford to heat. And now a pension crisis will add to their number.

It’s time for real leadership. Jack Layton showed the way by winning EI reform that extends benefits for the unemployed. His vision for every worker includes education and training, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, respect in the workplace, and a secure pension.

It’s time to listen to NDP calls for:

• pension system reform
• a national affordable housing program, national homecare, and national pharmacare
• investment in First Nation, Métis, and Inuit communities and economies
• a stronger FedNor
• a more equitable and environmentally sustainable Canadian society

“A top priority must be to protect our air, water, land, fish and wildlife. They are bread-and-butter in this tourist-dependent riding. So why is the Industry Minister not promoting new, sustainable “green” jobs and industry for our riding? And why did he vote to delay the New Democrat’s comprehensive climate change bill (C-311)?

“I have a long-standing commitment to the arts as well. As a writer, I recognize their contribution to our identity as self and nation, their ability to stir admiration, understanding, and compassion for the other, and to induce sheer joy in life’s blessings. And let’s not forget that a flourishing arts community brings the quality of life that attracts health care and other professionals to live and work here.

“There is one other issue especially important to me – affordable medicines at home and abroad. As researcher for Medecins sans Frontier’s/Doctors without Borders “Access to Essential Medicines” campaign in 2000, I was and remain deeply troubled by the apparent indifference of multinational pharmaceutical corporations and nation states to the staggering loss of life around the globe from preventable and treatable diseases. It is a prime example of the failure of ‘free markets’ to support the common good. We must establish international trade agreements that permit developing countries to produce less expensive generic medicines, and that allow our government to export generics to them. Domestically we must modify existing legislation to enable Canadian generic drug companies to bring more affordable drugs to market sooner. As Canadians, inheritors of an ethos of international good will and domestic fair dealing, we can do no less.”

Ms. Allen has an Honours BA in Canadian/US History & Sociology, University of Toronto; Master of Library Science, University of Toronto; has completed half the requirements for an MA in Ministry & Spirituality, Regis College, University of Toronto before moving north; and was recipient of the Abella Prize in Canadian History. She earned her RN from the Atkinson School of Nursing, Toronto; and retired from nursing several years ago.

For more information:

Contact Dianna Allen

705-746-1790

ndpparrysoundmuskoka@gmail.com

NDP Parry Sound-Muskoka

Box 1401, Bracebridge
P1L 1V5

Oped printed in last weeks Huntsville Forester & Parry Sound North Star

Food banks shouldn’t be necessary
June 10, 2009

In communities across this province the work of food banks has become vital for thousands of families. The work being done at food banks across this region by volunteers on behalf of our communities is so crucial for so many. To the most fortunate the work is largely invisible, except perhaps when called upon to donate. But it is important nonetheless.

As much as I admire the commitment, and the service, provided by these volunteers, I have to admit to looking forward to a day when it is not needed. No one in Ontario should be hungry. No one in Ontario should need a food bank. We must never accept that the existence of food banks is inevitable or permanent.

I became a New Democrat largely because I believe in dignity for everyone. It is the underlying principle that guides my political life. And I know and appreciate how integral the principles of dignity, respect and compassion are to the work that is done at food banks. But even with the best intentions, there remains a painful stigma attached to those who rely on food banks. It can be gut wrenching for a person to walk into Harvest Share or the Manna Food Bank for the first time. It shouldn’t be. There should be no shame in needing to use a food bank. Anger maybe, but not shame.

In Canada it is legal for the richest corporation that the world has ever known to pay their employees poverty wages. Ontario is now the child poverty centre of Canada. In fact, a very small portion of the population has been allowed to profit hugely on the backs of a growing population of working poor, while completely disregarding the environment. Not surprising, really, as unfettered free markets are historically cruel.

There is an enormous amount of wealth in our country. But right now that wealth is being enjoyed by a relatively small number of people. Safe housing, a living wage, clean air and nutritious food are not luxuries, or shouldn’t be. We should never accept the status quo as inevitable. In fact, we should be demanding that governments begin to put dignity above profit. Change is possible, but only if we make it happen.

In the short term, there is no doubt that the need for food banks all over Ontario will be on the rise. Finding a job that pays enough to cover both the rent and food is becoming increasingly difficult. And that means people, families, our neighbours, will find themselves hungry.

I am grateful that there are so many dedicated volunteers out there making food banks possible, but I fear that their work, unfortunately, is going to become more and more critical.

Sara Hall

President
Parry Sound-Muskoka NDP Riding Association

Ottawa – In a release issued today, Minister Tony Clement denounced Bill C-309, a piece of legislation heavily supported by 7 NDP MPs who have been advocating for infrastructure spending in the north since the beginning of the economic downturn.

The Minister expressed that the government is working on development projects; meanwhile Claude Gravelle, the NDP FedNor critic stated that the funds have not started flowing to the municipalities that need it most under FedNor. Clement called the bill “an expensive bureaucracy that would be difficult to create.”

“It’s one thing to say he does not support this bill, but it is a complete and utter irresponsibility and a disservice to Northern Ontarians to say that this bill would waste taxpayer dollars” Gravelle is quoted as saying. Glenn Thibeault, MP for Sudbury added, “Northerners need a stronger, better funded and most importantly community driven FedNor. If established, this proposal for a stand-alone agency would ensure long term growth and development of Northern Ontario- something the Conservatives claim to support publicly but vote against at the first opportunity.”

“The fact is FedNor is not functioning well, and that many projects are being denied for unknown reasons,” Gravelle added.

Gravelle and Thibeault say they will continue to work with the other Northern Ontario colleagues to pressure the government to act on the inadequate funding that has trickled into the north.

Letter to the Editor: Huntsville Forester

Clement’s outrage is misplaced
May 20, 2009
Re: Tony Clement always ready for an election, Huntsville Forester May 13.
I give Mr. Clement full marks for acknowledging the “sabre rattling” bluster from the Ignatieff coronation/leadership convention, as he well knows that his government coalition partners, aka the Liberal Party of Canada, have supported his government 71 confidence votes in a row, and knows, barring some drastic surprise, that they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, newly minted Conservative attack ads aside.
As for Mr. Clement being outraged for someone daring to point out that a huge amount of the CPC fundraising machine for his election comes from outside of the riding, is anyone really surprised? His neo-Conservative Mike Harris buddies on Wall/Bay Street know whose corner he’s in, and while the actual year-round people who live here suffer inadequate Muskoka wages, the death of the manufacturing sector, a recent budget that does nothing to help local people in the worst recession/depression since the ’30s. All the while the Conservatives are furthering the greatest wholesale sell-off of critical Canadian industries, because everyday Muskokans and indeed Canadians suffer mass layoffs, as Mr. Clement now allows foreign-owned businesses to not even honour what little concessions they have to make to the Canadian government as they move their business elsewhere, while doing nothing to help the 68 per cent of Ontarians who don’t qualify for EI.
Finally, while Mr. Clement crows about raising money for environmental scholarships, he recently appointed a well known climate change denier and big oil (Husky Energy) shill (John Weissenberger) to the board of Canada’s Foundation for Innovation… Oh yeah, he also happens to be Harper’s former chief of staff.
Dave Ungar
vice-president, Parry Sound - Muskoka NDP

Our Pot-luck AGM was a terrific success!  Take a look at some pictures from the event on our photo page.  

There are some big changes on our riding association.  We can now brag about our biggest executive ever!  Get to know your Riding Association’s Executive on the ‘Executive’ page.

A bus load of angry residents of East Parry Sound made the trip to Queens Park on May 27th to protest the threatened closure of the Burks Falls Hospital.  Parry Sound-Muskoka NDP Riding President, Sara Hall, and Vice President, Dave Ungar joined the activists for part of the protest after observing Question Period in the House.

‘Dalton McGuinty needs to understand how important rural hospitals are.’ says Hall.  ’For a person living in Pickerel Lake, having to drive close to an hour to the hospital in Huntsville would be completely unacceptable.’

During question period that morning, a frustrated NDP Healthcare critic, France Gelinas, ask David Caplan, the Minister of Health, a simple question.  ’Why are rural hospitals important?’  Caplan danced around the question without giving a direct answer.  ’I realize that this is Question Period, and not Answer Period,’ said Gelinas, who then proceeded to grill Caplan on the Liberal’s current course of dismantling rural hospitals.

Communities across Ontario are reeling from the consequences of McGuinty’s inadequate healthcare funding.  Bracebridge is still dealing with the repercussions of losing their Hospital Lab Services earlier this year.