[ad_1]
Article content continued
This current pandemic has shown our local health unit is already stretched beyond capacity in simply managing local cases.
Adding anything to their immense workload – including deep dives into race-based and socioeconomic data while respecting privacy and data weaponization concerns – without additional investments would be next to impossible, let alone doing so in a situation where further services may be cut due to lack of funding.
So here we are as residents caught in a Catch-22 at the same time reports show the province sat on $12 billion in unspent pandemic funding in September, as the second wave hit, with little transparency regarding its intended use or allocation.
Those funds went unspent while the largest school outbreak in the province happened right here in Windsor. A school in a fairly diverse neighbourhood with one of the highest proportions of students opting for in-school learning, presumably due to parents who could not support online learning for a variety of reasons.
The $12 billion went unspent as schools re-opened with class sizes larger than recommended by experts.
Those funds went unspent as farms struggled to adequately isolate and support their workers — many of whom are migrant workers.
The $12 billion sat idle as long-term care homes struggled without proper resources, staffing and oversight.
Government spending is often said to indicate its priorities. Perhaps even more powerfully, government ‘not-spending’ may be a stronger indicator what the government deems as important.
For many racialized Ontarians, these priorities come as no surprise.
But when it comes to the lives of men like Weng James, Rogelio Muñoz Santos, Bonifacio Eugenio-Romero and the other local residents who have died, more can be done.
More should always be done to prevent deaths.
Sarah Mushtaq is a millennial who writes about race, gender and life in today’s changing world.
[ad_2]
Source link
