The Ontario Nurses Association claims Management at the Grey Bruce health unit are obviously cutting jobs … to cover the mortgage costs at the new waterfront facility in Owen Sound.
Details of the 2009 budget for the health unit show a mortgage of just over 1 million dollars a year, which is up by 200 thousand dollars from last year.
At the same time… there is a cut in program staff spending of 173 thousand dollars, and another 170 thousand dollars cut from support staff costs.
ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud says …”at the end of the day, bricks and mortar do not provide health care to the community… the public health nurses do.”
Haslam-Stroud says they are balancing the budget on the backs of public health care for the community.
The new budget is coming in at 10.28 million dollars, up 3.8% from last year.
MOH Dr. Hazel Lynn has defended the budget numbers and says the layoffs are not related to the cost of the new building, but are because of budget restraints imposed by Queens Park.
