Hundreds of health care workers and members of community groups marched Saturday through the streets of Montreal to protest cuts to public health.
They say the cuts, introduced in the budget tabled earlier this week, amount to 30 per cent of their budget.
Montreal public health says they’ll have to let go between 50 and 60 employees and those cuts have already started.
Tobacco prevention worker Adrian Gould is one of them.
“Essentially there's nothing left to cut. we're cutting people now,” he said.
The Liberals tabled a budget aimed at relieving the burden of debt for generations to come. But protesters say the real cost can't be measured in dollars and cents.
Health spending will increase by 1.4 per cent under the Liberals -- less than expected, and public health will see its budget slashed by a third.
Parti Quebecois MNA Jean-Francois Lisee marched with protesters, and says the Liberal government needs to find other ways to balance the budget,
“Globally speaking, health care is not something you can cut. It’s something you need to manage the growth of,” he said.
The groups say as a cost-cutting measure, the move doesn’t make sense because public health is largely preventative – they run campaigns against tobacco use and encourage immunization, for example – and say cutting those prgramwill end up costing the government more in the long run.
“In the next 10 to 15 years you're going to see a ballooning of health care costs and so that's where people are going to feel it,” Gould said.
