The Ontario Public Service Employees Union wants Grey County council to reject a recommendation to close a long-term care facility in Markdale, and contract out management of operations of three municipal facilities.
OPSEU President Warren Thomas calls it an all-out assault on vital public services.
"This community has faced an all-out assault on vital public services," says Thomas. "It's about time that the powers that be realize that it is the residents, the workers and our communities that suffer when public services are cut and privatized. Grey Gables is a beautiful and relatively new facility; it is a public asset that belongs to the community."
The staff report calls for the consolidation of Grey Gables with Rockwood Terrace in Durham. Eventually a new facility would be built in Durham.
Thomas says residents would have to move out of their community, and loved ones would be forced to travel further.
"This is no way to treat our elderly and infirm," says Thomas. "These are people, after all, not just numbers to be shuffled around, so if council members wish to represent the best interests of the community, they must reject this proposal outright."
