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CUPE and the Ontario Health Coalition are calling for an investigation into corporate donations to Health Minister Tony Clement and Premier Ernie Eves from companies vying to build and operate new private hospitals.

“Everything about this smells bad,” says Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions. “We have said all along that these private hospital projects in Brampton and Ottawa are ill-advised.”

“The bidding process is shrouded in secrecy and now we’ve learned that finalists for the Ottawa bid are all big donors to the Tories. I think we have plenty of evidence that Tony Clement cannot be trusted to manage the public health care system.”

In a Queen’s Park news conference last week, CUPE and the Coalition called on the Integrity Commissioner to investigate.

“We have seen no evidence that these for-profit hospitals will be cheaper or provide better medical care in fact, the evidence suggests exactly the opposite,” says Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition. “Now that there are troubling ethical questions about the bid finalists and their relationship to the Tories, we are urging the government to do the right thing and kill these deals.”