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Thursday, April 6, 2023 5Brooklin Town Crier 5959 Anderson St. 905.655.6200 brooklineyecare.ca What can we help you see? Ask us about: Contact lenses Laser vision correction Computer glasses Sports goggles Rx swim goggles Specialty sunglass tints Safety glasses Driving tints Polarized lenses By Elizabeth Roy, Mayor, Town of Whitby M u n i c i p a l - ities were asked to pledge their commitment to help build 1.5 million new homes - where's the p r o v i n c e ' s pledge to build hospitals? By Elizabeth Roy, Mayor of the Town of Whitby Whitby council recently pledged to support the development of 18,000 new homes by 2031. Why? The province has assigned housing targets to 29 municipalities in Ontario in order to achieve its commitment to build 1.5 million homes over the next eight years. Elsewhere in Durham Region, Clarington and Pickering have each pledged to build 13,000 homes by 2031, Ajax has pledged to build 17,000 and Oshawa has pledged to build 23,000. There's no doubt that more housing is needed in Ontario. The question is, will the province step up and fund the services needed to support all these additional homes, all these additional people? Services like hospitals. Yes, we're facing a housing crisis in Ontario. But we're also facing a health care crisis. Here in Durham Region, the Lakeridge Health hospital system can't keep up with current demand. How will we fare with the 84,000 additional homes our local councils have pledged to see built? Durham is currently the fastest growing region in Canada. The population is set to double from about 680,000 people to 1.2 million by 2041. By 2041, the Lakeridge Health hospital system will need 1,793 beds. That's more than double the current count. Lakeridge Health is operating at 105 % of the funded capacity of 886 beds. Patients are being treated in spaces not designed for the volume or patients, or for patient care. Days after our local municipalities approved their housing pledges, Ontario's budget was released - and did not include a $3 million planning grant needed to support a new hospital in Durham. This was both incredibly concerning and disappointing. More than a year has passed since Lakeridge Health announced an independent, expert panel had selected a site in Whitby as the preferred location. This is now the second provincial budget to be tabled without funding for this grant. A provincial task force first recommended a new acute care hospital for Durham back in 2015. Eight years later, we're waiting with more questions than answers. It will take at least 10 years to build this hospital - every day we wait puts us further behind. Whitby is willing to work with the province on housing needs and health care needs - we have the solutions, we just need the support. Now that municipalities across the province have made their pledges and outlined the strategies they will use to support the development of 1.5 million new homes, maybe it's time for the provincial government to make a pledge of its own. A pledge that spells out how many new hospitals and health care services will be built by 2031 and the strategies to get us there. We can't have one without the other. Editor's Note: The BTC has twice written to MPP Lorne Coe with questions about this subject. He didn't respond. Instead we received emails from Hannah Jensen, press secretary for Minister of Health Sylvia Jones expressing that the Lakeridge proposal is "under review." Municipalities were asked to pledge their commitment to help build 1.5 million new homes - where's the province's pledge to build hospitals? Church Bazaar St Thomas Anglican Church is once again holding its Spring Market Bazaar, for the first time since Covid. It will include: a bake table, BBQ lunch, plant sale, jewelry, children's books and toys, knitting, collectibles and household goods. St Thomas Anglican Church Saturday May 6, 2023: 9:00 am - 3:00 pm