Brampton: Notes in Unison That Become a Tune

Hmmm, how many voices are needed before the powers that be finally
listen?

I do not often stray
into the realm of politics in this personal forum of mine. Why? Reason one:
Because the subject tends to raise my blood pressure. Reason two: Because
carping about political issues is all too common. But I dare to venture there
today after perusing the latest issue of The
Brampton Guardian.

The front page story of
this week’s issue deals with a family’s quest for justice for their son who
committed suicide while under 24 hour watch at Brampton’s William Osler
Hospitals in 2014. Two hours had allegedly passed when he was found lifeless.

(Let me emphasize that I
do not blame the hospital staff for this apparent tragedy. William Osler
Hospital is woefully underfunded and has been operating beyond capacity pretty
much since its doors opened. The doctors and nurses employed there do their
best under extremely difficult circumstances that continue to get worse.)

The family filed a
wrongful dismissal lawsuit which was scheduled to come to court in January. However,
when the family arrived at the courthouse, they were told the court date was
being pushed back to May 2021 because of a large court backlog and underfunding
of the local court system.

In this same issue of The Guardian, another story delves into
the lack of affordable rental housing in Brampton. The recommended average for
decent living circumstances is that no more than 30% of a family’s pre-tax
income is spent on rent and utilities.

In Brampton, 42% of
renters are over the 30% plateau and 21% spend more than 50% of their income on
rent and utilities. The Ontario No-Profit Housing Association estimates that
Brampton needs 99,000 new, affordable housing units to fill the gap.

Am I am qualified to
speak on these issues? I do have firsthand experiences to call on.

A couple of years ago, I
was in the William Osler Hospital emergency ward four times before and after
colon surgery. On three of those occasions, I spent 6 to 8 hours waiting to get
into a bed. On the fourth, the wait was 19 hours. The situation is worse now.

A few years further back,
it became necessary for me to find a new place to live in Brampton. (Cockroaches
– enough said.) It quickly became clear to me how tight the rental market is
here. I found a place as expeditiously as I could and grabbed it – being
fortunate enough to have an income that gave me a wider range of options.

The common denominator
in these unfortunate realities: explosive population growth that has far
outpaced the city’s ability to accommodate it and a glaring imbalance in
provincial funding. Brampton does not get its fair share of the pie.

I do not have a solution
to offer for these problems. All I can really do is add my voice to the growing
chorus of those who say Brampton is a city teetering on the edge in many
critical areas. If enough people sound the note, it becomes a tune that the
powers that be must heed.

~ Now
Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting
Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also
the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel which
was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s
website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go
Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribing
are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in the
right sidebar. If
you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly
to my page for postings once a week