Centretown and Somerset West Community Health Centres
The 44th federal general election takes place on Monday, September 20, 2021.
After years of engaging people in elections and encouraging everyone to vote, we still hear people say, “Why bother? Nothing is going to change.” But governments’ policies and decisions during this pandemic have had profound impacts on everyone’s life.
Among the clients that CCHC and SWCHC serve, we have seen worsening mental health, more opioid overdoses, even fewer affordable housing options and increased food insecurity. The two centres have effectively responded to these issues by:
- creating safe, accessible spaces for individuals in need of ongoing, in-person care and social services;
- providing virtual services to ensure continuity of care and support;
- staffing COVID-19 assessment and respite centres;
- ensuring clients have access to digital devices to connect with services and programs;
- visiting home-bound seniors; and
- delivering essential goods.
In 2021, we also provided COVID-19 testing and increasing awareness, confidence and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, including delivery of vaccine clinics. Through this work, we have seen and heard every day about the barriers people are facing.
The pandemic has exposed deep social and health inequities. For example, more than 13,000 Ottawa households are on the social housing waiting list with wait times of five to seven or more years. There is a lack of affordable social housing and private rental units in Ottawa. We need a government that will end homelessness and introduce new funding to build affordable community and non-profit housing for low-income households.
Before the pandemic, 4.4 million Canadians, including 39,000 people in Ottawa, relied on food banks each month. During the pandemic, the need for emergency food support has increased. Food banks have seen a 39 percent increase in demand. Now, one in seven people in Canada don’t have enough to eat. Nearly five million people in Canada, one of every seven individuals, currently live in poverty. The effects of poverty can affect a person’s life in different ways, including food security, health and housing. We need the next federal government to develop policies, legislation and initiatives to address the exacerbation of poverty and food insecurity during the post-pandemic period.
The Canadian Association of Community Health Centres has identified three areas of social inequities that require action by the next federal government.
1) Pre-pandemic, an estimated seven million (or one in five Canadians) avoided visiting an oral health professional because they couldn’t afford it. One in three Canadians don’t have dental insurance. The next federal government should commit to investing at least $1 billion to support public oral health programs for the 20 percent of Canadians who cannot afford to pay and/or suffer in pain.
2) Canada is the only country in the world with a universal health care system that doesn’t include universal coverage of prescription drugs. Instead, we rely on a confusing patchwork of more than 100 government-run drug insurance programs and more than 100,000 private drug insurance plans. Yet millions of Canadians don’t have access to the prescription medications they require. This glaring gap is part of our unfinished publicly funded health care system. The next federal government should commit to finally establishing a universal, publicly funded Pharmacare program to help residents pay for prescription drugs, medical supplies and pharmacy services.
3) The COVID-19 pandemic has also underscored the need for increased access to community health centres (CHCs) across the country. People would have timely access to integrated primary care and social services, particularly for complex physical and mental health and social needs. As we build back from the pandemic, the next federal government should commit to health equity and investment in CHCs so that we “build back better.”
Elections can divide us as parties put forward their platforms and differentiate themselves from each other. As voters, we need to talk about policies and issues that matter to us, discuss our differences, debate the issues and get informed about parties’ platforms.
This election is an incredibly important one and every voter needs to get out and vote so we elect a federal government that is able to tackle these social and health inequities.