Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli is accusing the Ontario Liberals of trying to balance the provincial budget on the backs of senior citizens.
“I’m going to be quite forceful today and demand the Wynne government backtrack on the proposed changes to seniors drug benefits contained in the 2016 budget,” said Fedeli during a news conference at his constituency office Wednesday.
“We have to stop this plan in its tracks and I am going to fight to see that this is repealed,” he said.
The provincial budget, introduced on Feb. 25, calls for changes to the Ontario Drug Benefit Program that will increase income eligibility thresholds from $16,000 to $19,000 for single seniors and from $24,000 to $32,000 for couples.
Fedeli said there were many things about the budget he did not like, but that “nothing is more harmful than this one particular item".
Unless this budget item is changed during budget hearings, which will be held next week, the changes in eligibility will take effect on Aug. 1.
“Single seniors making over $19,000 will see their drug benefits (deductible) almost double from $100 to $170 and the cost each time you refill a prescription will also increase by one dollar, from $6.11 to $7.11,” he said.
Since the budget was introduced Fedeli says his office has been inundated with emails, phone calls and letters from local seniors accusing the government of not understanding what it’s like to have to live on a fixed income.
“It’s already hard for seniors who have already seen their physiotherapy services cut, their cataract surgeries cut, and diabetic strips removed while seeing their hydro rates increase, making them choose whether to heat or eat. Now this government is making the cost of medications more unaffordable,” he said.
Fedeli is counting on his constituents to help convince the Liberals to retract this budget provision, but the fight may not be as hard as he envisions.
On Feb. 29, just days after the budget was announced, Premier Kathleen Wynne was already reacting to senior unrest when she acknowledged in the Legislature that her party was “going to look carefully at this regulation. If we didn’t get it right, we’ll make a change in terms of the (income) threshold.”
However, concerns over how the budget will impact on seniors is not limited to dispensing prescription drugs.
Fedeli also took aim at the government’s cutting the Healthy Homes Renovation Tax Credit which helped seniors live independently and safely in their own homes.
He also pointed out that while the government keeps verbally committing to rebuilding 35,000 nursing beds and bringing them up to safer and modern design standards, “to date there are only 5,000 redeveloped beds with no defined plan as to when or where the remaining 30,000 will be done.
“There are 24,000 seniors on a wait list who need a nursing bed, and that list will double in just the next six years,” said Fedeli.
In addition, there are more than 60,000 seniors challenged by Alzheimer’s or other dementias who are in need of an in-home behavioural support team.
Fedeli intends to hold the government’s feet to the fire on issues of senior health care.
“Now is the time for seniors in Ontario to have their voices heard,” he said promising to “be sitting in those budget hearings every day next week. I will be fighting for the seniors of Nipissing and for those right across Ontario. Our government needs to do right by our seniors.”
