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November 24th, 2022

Singh to Trudeau: children's health crisis letter is a wake-up call

OTTAWA — Jagmeet Singh, Leader of Canada's NDP, wants Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to take an open letter from health care and community leaders as a wake up call on the children's health care crisis.

"The health of our little ones is every parent's top priority," said Singh. "Why isn't it Justin Trudeau's?

"Trudeau should see this open letter as a wake-up call. Parents can't walk away from a wheezing, feverish toddler — but Trudeau's government walked away from health funding negotiations with the provinces. While families worry, miss work and spend painfully long hours in ER waiting rooms, the Liberal government has ignored the children's health care crisis. They have left parents to fend for themselves in a health care system that's been brought to its knees by years of underfunding."

Singh said the Conservative plan to cut federal funding would deepen the crisis.

The open letter calls for the federal government to get back to the table and hammer out a funding agreement to address the health care crisis, and to fund health care properly into the future. It also calls on the federal government to do a better job on preventative measures like vaccines. It's signed by health leaders like Dr. Beth Foster, Pediatrician-in-Chief at Montreal Children's Hospital; political leaders like former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne; the president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions Linda Silas and other prominent community leaders, moms and grandmothers.