April 2nd, 2001
Letter to the Minister of Health

 

The Honourable Tony Clement,

Minister of Health, Province of Ontario,

Toronto, Ontario.

 

 

April 2, 2001.

 

 

Dear Minister Clement,

 

Enclosed is a copy of a brief that the Kingston Health Coalition presented to the Board of Directors of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Community Care Access Centre on November 30, 2000.  In the brief we outline our concerns about limited democratic practices at the CCAC, lack of accountability, a climate of fear in Kingston, and limited public input and information. At that time we were assured that they would give serious consideration to our recommendations.

 

At this point in time the CCAC appears to be ignoring all of our suggestions.  Recently they denied membership to a Kingston resident who is a well known spokesperson for the rights of the disabled.  They have also refused a request to be involved in a public discussion on the community and long term care system.

 

We continue to be very concerned that a non-profit agency set up by your government, spending about 25 million dollars a year of public money, is ignoring standard democratic practice that most other CCACs follow.  We would encourage your Ministry to investigate the policies and procedures of the KFL+A CCAC.  We believed that they are not up to the standards envisioned by your government when it established CCACs.

 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Ross Sutherland,

Co-Chair Kingston Health Coalition.