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‘Not a government handout’
Re: Snowbirds should fly away on their own dime, Chris Selley, Oct. 8
One of the fundamental issues with Chris Selley’s piece is his mischaracterization of emergency out-of-country health coverage as a subsidy. To be clear, this coverage is not a government handout. Snowbirds in Ontario have and continue to pay premiums to OHIP even when they are outside of Canada. Selley unconvincingly attempts to make a distinction between snowbirds and taxpayers. Snowbirds are taxpayers; taxpayers who have paid into the Canadian health-care system their entire lives. So, why should their OHIP coverage be cancelled simply because they choose to winter in warmer climes for part of the year? The Ontario government’s termination of out-of-country coverage was not only illegal, it was unjust. Premier Doug Ford wanted to continue to collect OHIP premiums from snowbirds while simultaneously removing the coverage that they themselves were paying for.