To the Editor,
We are in a nationwide health care crisis!
Hospitals and their emergency facilities are at breaking point across the country. People are waiting punishing lengths of time to see a doctor, and some are dying during those waits.
Saving time by travelling by train between a handful of cities pales in comparison to time spent waiting in hospital emergency rooms.
A large part of the excess demand on emergency rooms stems from people not having access to a family doctor or a nurse practitioner. Their only option for medical care is waiting hour after hour in emergency.
If just one per cent of the $90 billion that Alto will cost was spent annually on funding more general practitioner doctors and nurses, 4,000 to 5,000 additional medical staff could become available.
As for Alto’s claimed job creation, many of which will be relatively short term, better that those jobs be created in building/upgrading and staffing hospitals and clinics, in upgrading and diversifying Canadian manufacturing to cost-effectively produce products that are currently imported, and on renewable energy generation and distribution, particularly in view of the behaviours of our southern neighbour!
And as for Alto’s marketing hype:
No, Canada does NOT ‘need’ a high-speed rail link.
What Canadians DO need is timely access to health care!
Four hours saved in travel between Québec City and Toronto, or four hours less waiting in Emergency, and weeks less waiting for a hospital bed?
You choose where your hard-earned tax dollars should go!
To make your voice heard in stopping billions being spent on this ill-conceived, absurdly costly project, please sign Parliamentary petition E-7203 which can be found on the Petitions tab on the House of Commons website.
Geoff Anderson
Vankleek Hill
