Saving money, but crippling communities: Glinas rips Liberals after laundry job losses

Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Glinassays she's concerned about the effects of Ministry of Health directives on communities like Greater Sudbury.

Through a freedom of information request, Glinas obtained the documents Health Sciences North used to make their decision on outsourcing hospital laundry services.

She didn't like what she saw.

"I wanted to see if, in [HSN's] decision...they only looked at the financial sector, like the ministry tells them to do," Glinas said. "Or did they take into account the health of our community? And they did not."

And that mandate to fix the bottom line forces organizations like HSN and City Hall to make decisions based on money rather than the good of the public.

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While Glinasacknowledges the centralization of hospital services to third parties can sometimes save money in the short term, it comes with a cost.

"And that cost is always northern and rural Ontario to pay," Glinassaid. "The cost means that we lose those services. We lose, right now, our laundry but many other hospitals have lost other services. And it always goes to the big centre down south."

And as those services are not hospital-run, they are shielded from any transparency and accountability, Glinassaid.

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