To think citizens waited nearly a decade for our new hospital, only see it morph into a “health sciences centre.” There’s nothing wrong with research, but not at the sacrifice of patient welfare.
Timely care and patient beds are the real issue.
Cancelled surgeries, premature discharges, infections, overpressed front line workers — all these should be resolved before precious dollars are syphoned elsewhere.
Then we have the councillors getting rid of the ombudsman. The councillors who pushed this should be the ones paying the onerous fee of $156 per hour to their contractor of choice for future investigations, not the taxpayer.
Imagine the potential cost involved. Because they don’t like Mr. Marin, they assume it’s acceptable the taxpayer picks up the tab. How ridiculous.
If the Northern Life poll saying 91.56 per cent of those questioned disagreed with council’s decision to boot the ombudsman, it’s reasonable we doubt, to a degree, our councillors’ decision-making skills.
Yet apparently the casino issue is also squarely theirs. It seems to me if the Ontario government wants to kill Sudbury Downs, we the people ought to have a say as to whether we want a casino stuck in our city core or whether, in fact, we want a casino at all.
This is plebiscite material due to the massive implications, yet it’s left to our councillors, developers and a greedy provincial government.
There’s lots of potential for vested interests here.
And lastly, on the subject of voting, the 2014 municipal election should be interesting partly because of the wording on store hours.
Council and the mayor disagree. Now the chamber of commerce seems determined to take council’s straightforward questions and reword them.
Let’s hope those three questions don’t become so obtrusive that voters give answers they did not intend. Whatever happened to democracy? Maybe it’s been hijacked on oh-so-many levels.
Carole Jones
Greater Sudbury
