Rob Ford appears to have softened his stance against accepting free nurses from the province, but it looks more like an attempt to patch up relations with Dalton McGuinty than a reversal of the mayor’s go-it-alone public health policy.
At a budget committee meeting Tuesday morning the mayor’s brother Doug paved the way for the city to employ three full-time provincially-funded nurses dedicated to eradicating Toronto’s bed bug infestation.
That was in sharp contrast to a nearly identical offer from the McGuinty government earlier this year that would have seen the province foot the bill for two public health nurses to improve the health of impoverished citizens and new immigrants. Despite sharp criticism from the public and the province, the mayor rejected that offer because he believed the city would be on the hook to pay the nurses’ salaries should provincial funding be cut.
The city’s chief medical officer Dr. Dave McKeown was pleased with the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting. “The nurses are important to solving the bed bug problem in Toronto,” he said, explaining that the worst infestations are often “a symptom of an underlying health problem, perhaps a mental illness, an addiction, or a disability. Those are people who need skilled nursing support.”
To ensure the province won’t download costs of the bed bug nurses onto the city Doug Ford, apparently acting on the mayor’s directions, introduced a motion stipulating that the bed bug nurses’ positions would be canceled immediately if the province cut funding. The motion passed unanimously, and will be considered by the mayor’s executive committee in September.
Neither Doug nor budget chair Mike Del Grande could explain why a similar motion wasn’t passed to facilitate the province’s earlier offer of two public health nurses. Doug, who usually makes himself available to media, was shepherded out of the room by the mayor’s press secretary immediately after the meeting.
So why the sudden outbreak of reason at City Hall?
For one, Ford would have a hard time rejecting the province’s help fighting bed bugs considering he campaigned on exterminating the critters, a fact likely not lost on a provincial government intent on forcing his hand on the nurses issue.
Del Grande also said the 3,000 emails protesting the mayor’s rejection of the two nurses in June may have played a role.
But perhaps most significantly, Del Grande hinted that Tuesday’s vote had something to do with the fact that Ford is currently seeking $650 million from the province for the Sheppard subway extension. With the premier practically throwing free health workers at Toronto in order to live up to his campaign promise to hire 9,000 new nurses before his term expires, the mayor may have realized it’s in his best interests to give McGuinty a hand if he wants to see money for his transit plans.
“Last time, (provincial) ministers made some commentary about the issue of providing nurses,” said Del Grande. “I think if one is politically astute, if one is maybe asking for other things in the future, that you’d want to be on more friendlier terms with the province.”
