Someone's not telling the truth about the proposed New Waterford health centre

MLA Tammy Martin concerned residents are being misled

NEW WATERFORD – Tammy Martin, MLA for Cape Breton Centre and NDP Health and Wellness spokesperson is concerned that residents of New Waterford are being misled about a proposed health centre for the community.

“Residents of our community were told one thing at a town hall meeting last weekend, but the Minister of Health has given a very different story when I asked about it in the Legislature,” said Martin.

On Sunday, October 1, Martin held a town hall meeting at the New Waterford Army Navy to talk about the future of the New Waterford hospital. Over 100 residents attended and spoke out against the government’s reduction of health services in Cape Breton.

At that meeting, Community Health Board representatives said the government had approved plans to move forward with a new health centre in New Waterford. According to these representatives, the Mount Carmel Elementary School will be torn down to create space for the new centre and construction will start in the spring of 2018.

During budget estimates at Province House, Martin asked the Minister of Health about whether a site had been confirmed.

The Minister said “no formal decisions as to the final location and so on have been completed,” and “to my knowledge those processes have not gone through and been received and vetted and finalized.” He also clearly stated, “final decisions haven’t been made.”

“Someone is not telling our community the truth, and they need to step up and be honest. The people of New Waterford deserve to know what is happening with our health centre,” said Martin. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this.”

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