Protesters have 99 red balloons for Thibeault

Demonstrators wrote their demands and concerns on red helium balloons and tied them to the door of Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault's office as part of an Ontario Health Coalition protest into health-care spending cuts today.

Greater Sudbury is the first of four cities to hold Days of Action demonstrations to protest against Ontario government cuts to health spending.

Organized by the Ontario Health Coalition, demonstrators from North Bay, Timmins, Sudbury and outlying areas gathered waving signs outside Sudbury MPP Glenn Thibeault's office.

Natalie Mehra, executive director of Ontario Health Coalition said northeastern Ontario "has been especially hard-hit by devastating hospital cuts in every major community."

"We are joining regular Ontarians from every walk of life to work together to build mass protests in each region of Ontario to raise our voices together and insist that our political leaders stop the cuts and privatization of our health care," said Mehra, "We're sending a strong message to our government, the cuts have gone too far and they need to stop now."

Because he was at Dynamic Earth making a funding announcement, Thibeault made an appearance towards the end of the demonstration. The MPP collected the red balloons and took them inside his office, saying he would write down the demands conveyed on them.

"My role as MPP is to listen to people of all dissenting views and bring that back to caucus. I'm happy you all came out today and voiced your concerns," said Thibeault. "Obviously, I'm not in complete agreement with everything they have to say.

"There have been a lot of investments made, but I'm also aware that Northern Ontario doesn't always get its fair share, and it's my job to make sure that I'm the voice for all of these people in the North and Sudbury.

The April 17 protest is the first of four. Hamilton/Niagara hosts the next one, on May 22, followed by Ottawa on June 12 and an undisclosed community in southwestern Ontario on June 26.