RED LAKE – The state of health-care services in Kiiwetinoong is a key issue for Green Party candidate Carolyn Spicer.
“It's very difficult to get an appointment,” she said in a recent interview.
“There's a waiting list you get put on. You have to call back the next month to get an appointment or you can maybe get a phone appointment, but those fill up.”
The Red Lake area is “really in a predicament where we do not have enough doctors for our community here,” she said.
Many people go to the Red Lake hospital’s emergency department for non-emergencies because they don’t have a family physician to turn to – and the wait can be extra-long, she said.
“Myself personally, I had to wait over 24 hours for a flight from Red Lake to Thunder Bay” to see a kidney specialist, she said.
Health-care reforms are part of a Green platform that is more comprehensive than some people think, she said.
“One thing that I have learned in the last couple of weeks when I've been campaigning is that a lot of people think that the Ontario Greens … are simply about maybe tree hugging and climate action and renewable energy.
“That is all very important, but there is a solid plan on our platform which is already costed and put out on the Green Party website.”
The party’s platform includes “health care and housing and schools and all the other things that are affecting Canadians … and I want people to understand that,” she said.
Spicer, an artist and former resource technician for the province’s natural resources ministry, joined the Green Party in 2018.
The Hamilton native said she has “a really deep appreciation” for the outdoors.
“I grew up in southern Ontario but moved to the North in 1986, Red Lake specifically in 1988, and I love the North.
“Kitchener is a big city, and that's where I spent most of my childhood and teenage years, but when I moved to Northern Ontario I knew this is where I wanted to stay,” she said.
“So I really want to protect the natural area that I live in now.”
The mother of three said she wants the region’s natural treasures to remain for her future grandchildren.
Ahead of the Feb. 27 election, the Green Party released a Green Plan for Northern Ontario with six issue areas: housing and homelessness; health care; environmental protection; affordability in northern communities; jobs and economic development; and transportation and infrastructure.
A party news release said the plan includes a Climate Adaptation Fund “to help municipalities make their infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of climate change.”
