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Ontario’s new and more restrictive freedom-of-information laws have quashed another request, this time for documents that may have given a glimpse into potential hospital cuts.
More than 70 per cent of Ontario hospitals are forecasting deficits, and Health Minister Sylvia Jones has told them to come up with three-year plans to balance their budgets.
Any “low risk” cost-saving moves with no or “minimal” front-line reductions should be made immediately, Jones’ ministry told hospitals, and “high risk” moves with service impacts for patients should only be considered if all lower-risk options are exhausted.
Hospitals’ plans for how they were going to get to balance were due last year and The Canadian Press filed a request in November for documents related to that in the minister’s office.
The Ministry of Health gave themselves a 90-day extension to turn over the records, until March 10, but that date came and went with no further word from its freedom-of-information office. Several requests for updates went unanswered.
In the meantime, a bill to put the records of the premier, cabinet ministers and their staff outside of the reach of freedom-of-information requests became law, preventing future requests and also nullifying many requests actively being processed as the law is retroactive to 1988.
Premier Doug Ford has admitted that part of the rationale for the clampdown is to kill a request from Global News to obtain his cellphone records.
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But those are not the only records affected by the new law. The Trillium reported that the law cut off access to hundreds of records about the Greenbelt scandal, which saw Ford announce then reverse plans to open the protected lands to developers.
And on May 6, records requested by The Canadian Press that may have included how hospitals were planning to eliminate their deficits were added to that list. The Ministry of Health said the law now prevented their release — nearly two months after its own extension deadline to disclose the information had passed.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said many more such denials will follow.
“This is, I think, the first of what we’re going to see of many, many requests for transparency and accountability around how this government spends money and what decisions are being made,” she said.
“It begs the question: is this the kind of thing that the government is trying to hide by changing the freedom of information laws?”
Several hospitals in recent months have announced job cuts as they fight deficits, including the Ottawa Hospital announcing it would have to cut three per cent of its workforce.
The hospital said it has already tried offering early retirements, cutting vacant positions, freezing travel and implementing a “more economical” benefits plan in order to cut costs, but it has not been enough. Now, some of the upcoming workforce reductions may have to happen through “involuntary departures,” the hospital said.
Interim Liberal leader John Fraser, who represents an Ottawa riding, said people deserve to know what information Jones is using to make health-care decisions at a time when hospitals are cutting staff.
“On what basis did you do this?” Fraser said, as an example of the questions he thinks the FOI request could have answered.
“What were the facts? What was the decision? What were the choices? People should know that. Maybe it makes governments uncomfortable, but people should know that. This government talks a good game about health care and what they’re doing. The results on the ground are people losing their jobs.”
A spokesperson for Jones said changes hospitals make through the balanced budget plan “will not impact patient care or access to services at any hospital.”
“As we continue to modernize and strengthen the delivery of hospital care, we need certainty from hospitals that they are able to plan for long-term stability to ensure communities across the province can access high quality care, close to home, for generations to come,” Ema Popovic wrote in a statement.
The government gave hospitals an additional $1.1 billion in its budget this year, amounting to a four per cent increase but less than half of what hospitals had said they would need to meet their operating needs.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said health care is the biggest item in the budget, and people deserve more transparency around the decisions the government is making.
“People have a right to know, and the fact that the government is denying it to them is wrong and it’s anti-democratic,” he said.
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