Niagara News Bulletin Dec 1-31

People's Voice Niagara Bureau

* A second Niagaran has died from the second hospital infection
outbreak, after the previous one in October led to 35+ fatalities.
Local 26 of the Ontario Nurses Association issued another warning
that nurses could not provide the standard of care necessary
because of understaffing, despite the province saying earlier cuts
were not the cause of the health crisis. McMaster University
released a survey showing 50% or more of residents in municipalities
covered by the Niagara Health System (NHS) don’t trust it, up to 80%
in Ft. Erie. Meanwhile the inquest continues into the role of moving
emergency rooms to a more distant P3 hospital in the death of a
teenager who could not be treated locally because of the cuts. The
Region has also released a “Let’s Start a Conversation” video which
shows that local health care problems are rooted in poverty and the
economy, copying a similar documentary from Sudbury.
* A Niagara Falls fast food worker has started a campaign to ban
smoking from drive-throughs, since the health of service workers
is left unprotected by the Smoke-Free Ontario Act. The local Liberal
MPP thinks it’s a good idea, but wants to leave it to businesses to
self-regulate.
* CUPE-affiliated Steel City Solidarity, a Workers Action Centre
organized to extend labour’s support to non-unionized workers,
picketed a Grimsby restaurant where the manager had not paid a
worker almost $2,000 in wages despite being ordered a year ago by
the Labour Board to pay up. Scheduled to be open, the restaurant
was closed up during the picketing.
* Rural Niagara residents were again warned they might see soldiers
running around with weapons and military vehicles on exercises in
civilian areas as part of militarization.
* A city councillor has denounced the Niagara Regional municipal
council as a “dictatorship”. The council refused to hold a byelection after a councillor representing Welland was recently elected
as a provincial MPP. Calling a by-election “financially irresponsible”,
the regional body tried to appoint a replacement despite opposition
from Welland council.
* As part of municipal cuts from provincial underfunding and
downloading, St. Catharines will stop shovelling the driveways of
seniors and the disabled, originally implemented to make it a
“walkable city.”