MPPs McDonell, Clark collecting budget advice Friday

SDSG MPP Jim McDonell. (MPP Office via Newswatch Group, File)

CORNWALL – MPPs Jim McDonell and Steve Clark will be holed up in a hotel conference room in the city most of today (Friday) listening to advice on the next provincial budget.

McDonell, the PC Children and Youth Services Critic, and Clark, the PC House Leader, are hearing pre-budget submissions from local businesses and community representatives at the Cornwall Best Western.

The information will go to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs – an committee comprised of six Liberals, two PCs and one NDP member.

One of those groups granted standing for Friday’s consultations is the Cornwall Chapter of the Ontario Health Coalition.

OHC spokeswoman Elaine MacDonald plans to address three concerns – the rise in private medical clinics, underfunding of home care and long term care, and long distance health care.

MacDonald says chronic underfunding is destabilizing the system and is causing privatization to creep into the public model of health care.

A date for the next provincial budget has not been set.

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