Media Advisory: Grassroots Referendum on Hospital Cuts Culminates in Final Day of Mass Voting This Saturday

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 27, 2016) -

Attn: Assignment Editor

There have been hundreds of advance voting stations, and hundreds more will be open tomorrow -- Saturday May 28 -- for the last day of voting in the volunteer-led, cross-Ontario Referendum. In total, there are more than 1000 community voting stations that have been organized across Ontario at busy stores, farmers' markets, Legions, churches and workplaces. More than 1500 volunteers will be staffing the voting stations in communities all across Ontario to save their local hospitals, stop the cuts across the province and restore services to local community hospitals.

When & Where

For the full list of voting locations, organized by region across Ontario, please visit the link here: http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/find-the-voting-stations-near-you/

Who

Ontario Health Coalition and local coalitions across Ontario.

What

Ontario-wide, volunteer-led referendum to save local hospitals and stop the cuts to our community hospitals.

Background

Ontario is currently in the ninth consecutive year of real-dollar cuts to global hospital budgets, the longest stretch in Ontario's history. These cuts mean that hospitals across the province, cannot keep up even with basic inflation. Hospitals have been cut to the point of dangerous overcrowding and understaffing and patients are paying the price.

The Ontario Health Coalition has been on the front lines across the province, actively campaigning to stop the devastating cuts in local public hospitals and to win a restoration of funding, staffing, beds and services to meet communities' needs for care.

The Ontario-wide referendum is an opportunity for all Ontarians to have their say and to make the overwhelming public opposition to the cuts so undeniable, so impossible to ignore that the government cannot continue to railroad the cuts through.