For Immediate Release
March 15, 2004

Toronto — In a Queen’s Park press conference, the Ontario Health Coalition and the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions revealed that newly released documents show that Brampton’s planned hospital is definitely a privatized P3 hospital and that all financial records involving over $1 billion in public money are being withheld by the hospital and the government. Included in the released documents are project agreements and parts of leases and subleases, however, all financial information and many other records are omitted or deleted. The Royal Ottawa Hospital still refuses to disclose any documents.

"The documents reveal that the Liberals are going ahead with the privatized P3 hospital negotiated by the Conservatives before they were thrown out of office," said Natalie Mehra, Provincial Coordinator of the Ontario Health Coalition. "If this massive privatization scheme is allowed to continue, the hospital will be operated for profit by a myriad of corporations through intricate lease arrangements and contracts. Services vital to patient care will be privatized for at least 25 years and the corporations and their lawyers stand to make a fortune from public taxes."

"The secrecy surrounding the use of our money is scandalous," added Dora Jeffries, co chair of the Brampton Health Coalition. "We have fought for three years to get the hospital and the government to disclose what they are doing with our money and our hospital, yet they still refuse to publicly divulge any of the financial arrangements and other critical information."

"It is ironic that the Health Minister is waging a campaign on hospital accountability while breaking election promises and signing secret deals", said Michael Hurley, President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions. "This deal shows that P3 hospitals, if not stopped, will usher transnational for-profit corporations into the heart of the Medicare system. Ultimately, their appetite for money will suck funding away from beds and staff threatening universal accessible healthcare."

(A complete list of disclosures and secrets is contained in the media information provided on the Ontario Health Coalition website at www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca)

Disclosed in the documents:

Items deleted or omitted:

1. All financial information including the full cost, the schedule of payments to the private corporations, the borrowing rate, the profit etc.
2. The complete list of services to be privatized.
3. The Value for Money Report done by the province last spring/summer.
4. Memos and other government documents pertaining to the deal.
5. Officers of the corporations and others involved in the deals. We could find no signatures or named representatives in the documents.