“This week, phone calls are being made to Cambridge and North Dumfries residents providing them with false information. The phone calls claimed that I was voting against the budget, that I was voting against Cambridge Memorial  Hospital’s expansion and that I wanted an election. Firstly, I have chosen to vote against the budget because it does not address the ongoing jobs and economic crisis. Serious action needs to be taken to correct this sinking ship and this budget failed to address it. It’s one thing for the Liberals to promote their budget using facts. But they don’t have any, so they resort to distractions, scare tactics and misleading robocalls instead. The facts are these: There is no jobs plan in this budget. It does nothing to steer us away from a looming $30 billion deficit. Spending goes up, not down. The deficit is now higher than those of all other provinces combined.

Secondly, my vote against the budget does not mean that I want an election. On the contrary, I know that constituents in Cambridge and North Dumfries feel that an election is a waste of money and not necessary. I am simply voting against a very weak Budget that does nothing to help the long-term sustainability of our economy. We tried to avoid an election before the budget. However, over the past 6 months, my colleagues and I have put forth numerous ideas that we wanted in the budget only to have the McGuinty Government scoff at these ideas and they continue to ignore them today.

Lastly, in regards to the hospital funding, since day one, I have been an advocate for Cambridge Memorial Hospital. When I introduced the first Private Member’s ballot, the House successfully passed my resolution on the hospital expansion projects. In my resolution, I asked the Liberal Government to table a detailed plan for Cambridge Memorial Hospital and all other hospital expansions that they promised across Ontario, but they were the only party to vote against the resolution and they continue to refuse to table the documents. It is apparent that the reason that they didn’t table a plan is because they didn’t want to be held accountable to their plans. Instead, they hoped that in the near future they could dangle the fate of Cambridge Memorial Hospital in front of Cambridge’s eyes once again. But the facts are that on July 28th, 2011, Health Minister Deb Matthews stated that the funding was “baked” into last year’s Budget and it was reconfirmed on September 25th, 2011, when the local Liberal Campaign team issued a press release saying that the CMH expansion was “part of the recently passed budget – meaning the money is already committed from the province for CMH.” To suggest that the vote for funding the Cambridge Memorial Hospital expansion is in this year’s budget means that the Liberals were either lying then or are lying now.

The time for political games is over! I have always said and will continue to say that hospital funding should be based on need, not politics. The Liberals have already said that the money is committed for Cambridge Memorial Hospital. Why would they make this phone call and cast doubt by saying that it is not safe or secure?

For a phone call like this to go out to Cambridge residents is very upsetting and troubling. When an announcement was made for CMH last Thursday, I thought we had gotten out of the political games around Cambridge Memorial Hospital, but I guess that we haven’t. I vow to all Cambridge and North Dumfries residents that I will continue to stand up against the Liberals fear tactics and protect our hospital from political games.” – Rob Leone, MPP for Cambridge and North Dumfries.