Miller’s hospital petition garners 4,000 names

QUEEN’S PARK — Thanks to “some amazing people,” Norm Miller’s save the hospitals petition has about 4,000 names in less than three weeks.

Norm Miller’s petition available throughout Bracebridge, online and at the MPP’s constituency and Queen’s Park offices.

The Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norm Miller made the following statement in the legislautre Tuesday, thanking the volunteers who have been working tirelessly to distribute and collect petitions to save the Huntsville District Memorial and South Muskoka Memorial Hospitals before reading the petition into the record again.

Since launching the petition less than three weeks ago Miller has so far received petitions containing approximately 4,000 signatures.

“This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting with some amazing people who are very passionate about saving our Muskoka hospitals. As you may have noticed, I’ve been reading petitions calling on the Minister of Health to maintain two hospitals in Muskoka, one in Bracebridge and one in Huntsville. The petition also calls upon the minister to ensure small- and medium-sized hospitals receive enough funding to maintain core services.

“The future of these hospitals has been a long-standing issue but recently the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare capital development task force announced they will soon be making a recommendation.

“With than on the horizon, my constituents asked me to launch another petition to ensure their concerns were heard.

“But a petition doesn’t do any good without signatures, so I want to thank some of the dedicated people who have been distributing and collecting these petitions: Norine Sinclair, who collected 338 signatures in four hours at the Foodland in Sundridge and Ruby Truax, who sent in sheets with 324 signatures.

“Then there are the people I met this weekend: Marcia Mackesy, who has been distributing petitions up and down the main street of Huntsville; Marjory Goodwin, who collected 468 signatures; June Tebby, who collected 505 signatures; Karen Wright, who presented me with 526 signatures; and finally, Tammy McAughey and Peter Sangoi of Sprucedale, who collected some 1,500 signatures that I will be presenting today. And there are more.

“Thank you to everyone who sent in petitions and to all the business owners and municipalities who are displaying the petitions in their shops and offices.”