On Saturday afternoon, three officials working under Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario's Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, confirmed in separate e-mails to The Sentinel Dispatch that beginning in June of this year, the province will be ending home ambulance service in order to contain costs.
Currently, a single, normal land ambulance service costs approximately $240.00. Until now, Ontario taxpayers have been billed $45.00, with the rest of the service being covered by the government.
However, according to the Health Ministry sources, the cost of maintaining ambulances, as well as paying thousands of paramedics has become unfeasible. "Premier Wynne has been in talks with Minister Hoskins about this even before she won the Liberal leadership," said one source. "Once she became premier, she rewarded him for his cooperation on this particular matter."
Another source revealed that in scrapping what many Ontarians see as an essential service, the Premier hopes to instill a spirit of community. "Everyone in our office believe in Kathleen and her extraordinary heart and vision. Aside from costs, the main reason for eliminating home ambulance service is to build teamwork and a sense of family among Ontarians." The unnamed worker, who has worked for the Health Ministry for 18 years, provided further details: "Beginning in mid-June, when Ontarians feel that they need medical assistance, they will have a couple of choices. The first choice is to push themselves to get out of the house, in doing so getting some much-needed exercise and curbing the alarming obesity rate. The second choice is for people to set up an emergency call list of family, friends, or neighbours who they can call if they are in distress, thus building stronger family ties and friendship."
Another source confirmed that the Premier initially considered setting up community drop-off sites, where patients with health needs could travel to and receive a free warm beverage and snack before being transferred to hospital by ambulance. However, this was also seen as too costly.
The millions of dollars that the Ontario government will save is expected to be spent in other highly-needed areas. "Some of the saved money will be going to new bureaucrats like our party's new executive director (and former chief of staff to former Toronto mayor Rob Ford), while a portion of it will go to current and anticipated lawsuits."
The controversial move comes only months after Canada Post revealed that it would begin phasing out door-to-door mail delivery.
From Our Queen's Park Bureau