Timiskaming-Cochrane New Democratic MPP John Vanthof was among supporters rallying with locked-out CMHA workers, Friday afternoon in Timmins. He wants the CMHA to call off the lockout and get back to bargaining a fair deal.
He says the real fight, however, is a lack of provincial funding.
“Everybody talks about the increase in mental health issues and we all know, an increase in addiction issues,” he states. “We need to have an increase in funding from the province, so that we don’t end up fighting this on street corners and people lose, losing possibly their lives.”
Vanthof says the NDP keeps bringing it up in the legislature, and the government says it’s doing X and Y, but the problems keep increasing.
Our interview with John Vanthof is below.
