Why closing down water testing labs is bad for everyone

Recently the Ontario government announced that it will be closing 6 of the 11 public health labs and scale down the types of tests it will perform. This is another thinly veiled elimination of necessary public health services in favour of privatization. It puts a barrier up for people to get their drinking water tested.  Newcomers to the country living in Ontario may not know that the well water needs to be tested on a regular basis to protect against contaminants.  The closing of labs will also put-up barriers for farmers to have their water tested. Without fully funded public health labs we are set to have both a public health and economic crisis on our hands. Farmers who can’t get their water tested run the risk of contaminating our locally grown produce at farmer’s markets and in our grocery stores. The lack of labs will cause a backlog in the system for those communities that test their water at these publicly funded labs. Ford’s government runs the risk of Ontarians not being able to work due to illnesses that he could easily prevent. Walkerton is still fresh in many Ontarians’ minds of Ontarians. Any loss of days of work or life due to a lack of public health funding is too many. As Ontarians we deserve clean and safe drinking water and food. Please feel free to contact Sylvia Jones to let her know how you feel about this situation at  sylvia.jones@pc.ola.org