Citizens Vote To Keep Hospital Public

Over 8,500 North Bay and area residents have voted in favour of keeping the new North Bay Regional Health Centre 100 per cent non-profit, publicly owned and operated, the North Bay Health Coalition announced this morning.

A total of 8,824 people voted in the weekend referendum, said coalition co-chair Mickey King, with 8,545 voting in favour, 249 voting against and 30 spoiled ballots.

"We are thrilled with the enormous turnout, we have more votes than almost all of City Council," King said.

"The vote of the citizens of North Bay is absolutely clear; we want no part of for-profit corporation managing, maintaining or taking over any other part of our non-profit hospital. With this huge vote we are sending an impossible-to-ignore message to Monique Smith and Dalton McGuinty."

Baytoday.ca will have more on this story later this morning.