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News Release Cuts in public health budget are short-sighted and counter-productive April 3, 1995 To: Dear Mayor Hall, members of the Executive Committee: We understand that the Toronto City Council is considering major cuts to the Department of Public Health. These cuts are likely to mean reductions in dental services for welfare recipients, decreased pest control services, decreased tuberculosis prevention, and cuts in nutrition services, as well as reductions in other services. As a physicians' group, the Medical Reform Group is very concerned about the adverse effects on the health of Torontonians which will result from these cuts. We believe that these public health services are essential services and that the proposed cuts are extremely retrogressive. Not only do the proposed cuts ignore the human suffering that will result from the increased burden of illness, visited largely on the disadvantaged, but they are fiscally short-sighted. Decreased health of Canadians reduces productivity, and places additional burdens on the publicly financed health care system. By saving money now, we are ensuring that there will be increased and unnecessary costs in the future. We therefore express our strong opposition to cuts in the budget of the Department of Public Health, and urge you to reconsider this proposal.
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