CUPE rallies against public-private partnership for Corner Brook nursing home
Gary Moore | CBC News | Posted: February 13, 2017 8:07 PM | Last Updated: February 13, 2017
The Canadian Union of Public Employees rallied Monday against the plan to use a public-private partnership to build a new long term care facility in Corner Brook.
"Once you open a crack in the door, the door is open then and then there's room for all kinds of privatization to come in," said CUPE president Wayne Lucas.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government announced in January that a private company will build the Corner Brook long-term care home, but it will be staffed by public sector workers.
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CUPE, which represents some health care workers in the province, demanded more information about how that would work.
"We have nothing against the private sector," said Lucas. "But when they build it, they build it for a profit."
"My concern is to get a facility built for seniors," said the MHA for Humber–Bay of Islands, Eddie Joyce, who was at the rally Monday to answer union criticism.
"There are 43 seniors in acute care beds," he said, a problem that has long plagued the Western Memorial Hospital.
Construction is expected on the new long-term care facility in the fall of 2017.