Ruby Sahota accuses Jagmeet Singh of ‘misleading’ Bramptonians on new hospital

One Liberal incumbent is pouring cold water on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s promise to build Brampton a new hospital, saying the pledge is not his to make. 

Ruby Sahota of Brampton North told The Pointer that Singh was “misleading” the public on an issue only Premier Doug Ford can control. Sahota’s riding holds Brampton Civic Hospital, where Singh stopped on the second day of the federal election campaign to promise funding for a new hospital.

The NDP leader promised that his party, whether in a majority or minority government, would deliver the infrastructure project to Brampton, a city of more than 600,000 people with just one full hospital.

“I think Jagmeet Singh is misleading Bramptonians just now,” Sahota said. “I think he spent a lot of time at the provincial legislature and so, of course, he has a good pulse on the community.”

In her interview with The Pointer, which took place after a press event with incumbent minister of finance Bill Morneau at her constituency office, Sahota agreed a new hospital was a necessity. However, she said offering the infrastructure project as a key federal policy plank was wrong.

Sahota pointed to other forms of achievable federal action, such as the $10 million the Liberals contributed to the Ryerson University Cybercatalyst this year. The feds offered the funding after Ford’s government cancelled $90 million earmarked for a downtown university campus in Brampton last year. The new initiative, expected to create more than 700 jobs in Brampton, may be a far cry from a $90-million campus, but Sahota has offered it before as evidence of her party’s ability to deliver infrastructure to the city. 

Ruby Sahota of Brampton North

“I’ve gotten a lot of experience in these past fours years,” she said. “A lot of knowledge has been gained through meeting different community groups and meeting different levels of government.”

But, she continued, “I have learned that these things are not easy to agree upon at times and that projects come from the bottom up. So I think maybe candidates that are unaware of the structure and how it works, perhaps out of naïveté, they are making these promises. But I think that Jagmeet Singh is actually fully aware of how the system works.”

The NDP candidate for Brampton North, Melissa Edwards, said that during Sahota’s term, when the Ontario Liberals also had a majority at Queen’s Park, nothing was done to address health care in Brampton. 

“The NDP in general and Team Brampton look at the hospital issue as something for all three levels of government,” Edwards told The Pointer. “The Liberals had all five Liberal MPs within Brampton and they also had a majority provincially for three years as well as municipally [with a Liberal leaning mayor], and the issue was never addressed. That was a time they were able to make some real action on getting better health care for Bramptonians. The NDP and Jagmeet Singh have made a commitment to work with all three levels of government to get Brampton the hospital it needs.” 

Edwards did not give a clear commitment on how much money the NDP would make available for the hospital, saying they would work with “all three levels of government to come up with that number.”  

Singh has said he would put federal money on the table for Ontario with the stipulation it be used to build a hospital for Brampton. Sahota declined to say whether the Liberals would consider a similar move, adding she is unconvinced the province would play ball. 

“I’ll definitely advocate on their [residents’] behalf for a new hospital, for more beds, I’ll advocate for a better system,” she said. “At the end of the day, the province is the one that needs to pull the trigger.” 

Sahota lamented the fact that a new hospital was not front-and-centre of the provincial election last year, when she says the political pressure would have been more beneficial.

“When it comes to the hospital, these decisions are made by the municipality and the province together,” she said. “We provide funding from the federal level. I think it is disingenuous, the flyers that have been received at the homes in a co-ordinated effort by all the NDP candidates on the ground. [They] have basically been boldly saying that they will deliver on a hospital and we know that that’s easier said than done … I mean, had Jagmeet been able to do this, he would have done it when he was in opposition at Queen’s Park.” 

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