Sudbury health-care rally included a sweet surprise

CUPE hosted 'Support Our Care' day of action in Greater Sudbury on Friday in support of health-care workers.

Terry Rochefort is a PSW at Pioneer Manor and northern Ontario CUPE representative. He is pictured here at a CUPE Support our Care rally in Greater Sudbury, Ont., on July 26, 2024. (Amanda Hicks/CTV News Northern Ontario)

Terry Rochefort is a PSW at Pioneer Manor and northern Ontario CUPE representative. He says he has seen many colleagues feel burnt out.

"I went through it when the pandemic, everybody did. We stuck it out," he said.

“And (now) it's on a daily basis. You see burnout, somebody burning out."

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Rochefort told CTV News that the privatization of health care would lead to job losses and workers leaving the industry.

The rally held on Barrydowne Road included a free ice cream cone by Scoopie’s Ice Cream, based out of the city’s Markstay community.

CUPE partnered with Scoopie’s Ice Cream, based out of the the Greater Sudbury community of Markstay to provide the community ice cream cones as part of their demonstration on behalf of healthcare workers on July 26, 2024. (Amanada Hicks/CTV News Northern Ontario)

CUPE partnered with Scoopie’s to support a local business and to raise awareness of its opposition to the privatization of health care and the burnout experienced by many workers in the industry post-pandemic.

Gabrielle Bourget, the co-owner of Skoopie's, said her daughter is a registered nurse, so supporting health-care workers was important to her.

"As a parent of somebody who works in the health care system, I think it's really important for awareness and knowledge to be spread out to everybody so that they can make their own educated decisions as to how they want our health care system to be operated in the future," she said.

CTV News reached out to Ontario's Ministry of Health for comment and received a statement in response.

"We know there will always be those that stand ideologically opposed to innovation in the health care system, but facts matter, and our government is making bold and innovative changes to connect more people to the care they need, when they need it,” the statement reads in part.

“Our government has made record investments in our publicly funded health care system. Since 2018, we have increased the healthcare budget by over 31 per cent, investing over $85 billion this year alone, including a four per cent increase to the hospital sector.”

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CUPE has hosted other rallies opposing health care privatization across the province recently and said they continue for the rest of the summer.