With Dr. Robin Lennox- (MPP) for Hamilton Centre

Enjoy our chat with Dr. Robin Lennox, Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Hamilton Centre, NDP Party.

As a practising family physician specializing in addiction medicine, do you continue to serve in a clinical capacity while holding elected office? If so, how do you balance the demands of both roles, and in what ways has your medical background informed your work as an MPP?

I have always loved my clinical work as a physician and I believe healthcare providers offer an incredible service to their communities. Since taking on the role of Member of Provincial Parliament, my time is quite limited but I will continue a small amount of clinical work in order to stay connected to the reality of healthcare on the ground and continue to serve my community as a physician. Often, this means picking up weekend shifts or covering clinic in lieu of vacation time. Access to healthcare—particularly in areas such as wait times, hospital capacity, and mental health services—remains a pressing concern for many Hamilton residents. 

Given your dual expertise in medicine and public service, what solutions do you propose to improve access and outcomes across the healthcare system?

First, we need to ensure that every person in Hamilton has access to a family physician, preferably in a team-based care model which we know is cost-effective and associated with positive health outcomes. In order to achieve this, we need to increase our provincial funding for community-based care, including expanding funding for family health teams and ensuring that all team members (nurses, counsellors, physiotherapists, etc) receive adequate compensation in order to stay in their essential roles. We also need to reduce the administrative burden that family physicians face (often 20 hrs per week on top of their full-time clinical schedule) and move away from a business entrepreneurship model so that doctor’s graduating from medical school are more likely to choose a career in family medicine.

To address emergency department wait times and hallway healthcare, we need to invest in a few key areas. First, we need to ensure that the base funding for our hospitals are expanded to match their capacity needs – for example, hospitals in Hamilton are often at 120% of inpatient bed capacity. What that means is that for the additional 20%, there are no funded beds or funded nursing support. This places additional strain on hospitals by shifting patients into “unconventional spaces” like hallways, but also means our nurses are having to cover more patients than they are intended to – leading to burnout. By increasing the base funding for hospitals to match the volume of admitted patients they are caring for each day, we could address this short-fall and improve care received in hospital. We could also creatively invest in infrastructure and re-development to ensure that hospitals are able to use their spaces most efficiently.

But in order to address the acute care crunch, we also need to ensure that there are safe community spaces for people to be discharged to after acute hospitalization. Many patients are kept in hospital for prolonged stays because of the lack of long-term care spaces available and lengthy waitlists. If we invested in quality, not-for-profit long-term care homes in Hamilton and expanded their capacity, this would alleviate some of the outflow issues currently being experienced in our Hamilton hospitals.  

Affordability continues to be a significant challenge for Hamiltonians, encompassing housing, food, utilities, and other basic needs. What provincial measures are currently underway—or being proposed—to help alleviate the financial strain on local families?

Unfortunately, the current Conservative government has failed to put forward any legislation that addresses the affordability crisis. But, there are a number of things we could and should be doing to alleviate the financial strain on our local families.

First, we could immediately amend the Residential Tenancies Act to ensure there is rent control on all units and to close loop-holes that allow for renoviction and rent-hikes between tenants. We know that housing costs are far exceeding the recommended 30% of our total household budgets, and rent control is one way to immediately clamp down on those rising costs.

Another measure to reduce out-of-pocket costs is to ensure that everyone has public coverage for prescription medications through the Ontario Drug Benefit. Currently, the Ontario Drug Benefits covers prescription medications for people under the age of 25, over the age of 65, or those on social assistance or living in long-term care. We know that with rising costs of living, many people are having to skip doses or ration their medication due to cost or forego their prescription medication altogether. I put forward a motion asking the government to expand Ontario Drug Benefit eligibility to include all Ontarians to address this gap, but unfortunately was voted down by the Conservative members. I was heartened to see that my motion garnered support from all other MPPs – NDP, Liberal, Greens, and independents – so hopefully we can continue to build momentum in the coming months to see this realized.

We also need to ensure that legislation is in place to prohibit price gouging and price fixing on essentials like groceries. At a time when emergency food bank use is doubling in our communities, corporations should not be allowed to profiting excessively at the expense of everyday people being able to put food on the table. 

As Hamilton continues to grow and change, what role do you see yourself playing as MPP in guiding its future, and what priorities will shape your approach to that role?

My priorities have been shaped by what I’ve heard at the doors and in conversation with Hamiltonians over the past several months. Consistently I’m hearing that healthcare, housing, and affordability are the major priorities for our community and those priorities will drive the work that I do locally and at Queen’s Park.

This means advancing legislation to try to strengthen our healthcare system and ensure everyone has access to quality primary care, addressing the homelessness crisis, increasing protections for renters, pushing for public investment in affordable housing, ensuring affordable child-care for families, and doubling social assistance rates. There are many more challenges that we need to address, but these areas will be among my top priorities. 

What is your position on the ongoing Greenbelt land use debate, and how do you propose to balance the need for development with environmental protection and sustainability in Hamilton?

It’s clear that the Ford government selling off the Greenbelt was never about building housing, it was about lining the pockets of developers who were allowed to draw the Conservative government maps of which areas they wanted removed from Greenbelt protections. The ongoing RCMP investigation will shed light on the extent of this inappropriate activity.

There are many opportunities to responsibly and sustainably develop within urban boundaries and with respect for environmental protections. For example, we can use existing public land and public funding to build affordable housing with an aim to address our local housing crisis, rather than profit off of it. In Hamilton, this means investing in mid-rise buildings, co-op and multiresidential units, geared-to-income and supportive housing units.

Representing a diverse and dynamic community like Hamilton requires careful attention to local needs. How do you navigate the balance between provincial policy directives and the specific priorities of your constituents, especially on critical issues such as housing, public transit, and healthcare?

My role is to be a voice for Hamilton Centre at the provincial level. My duty is to ensure that I am acting in the best interests of my constituents and ensuring their needs are represented in the priorities of our collective NDP caucus. I am fortunate that NDP caucus members understand the critical issues facing us today, including the importance of strengthening our public healthcare system and addressing the housing crisis.

In addition to advancing province-wide policies that would serve all Ontarians, including Hamiltonians, I also have many opportunities to advocate for Hamilton-specific needs. These include putting forward Private Members’ Bills and motions, advocating at the committee level, and working with Ministers directly to ensure the needs of my constituents are addressed. It’s work that I am proud to do, and will continue to advance over the next four years. 

Looking ahead, which issues will be central to your work as MPP for Hamilton Centre, and what outcomes are you aiming to achieve in the short and long term?

In the short-term, I want to ensure that Hamiltonians feel supported by me as their local MPP. This means raising awareness of the issues that we can address in our local constituency office, including navigating OW/ODSP, identification issues, drug coverage and OHIP issues, WSIB concerns, and more. We have already had many constituents contact our office and we want to make sure all Hamiltonians are aware of the support we can offer.

In the long-term, I want to advance policies that will have a significant impact on our community. These include:

· Expanding drug coverage to include all Ontarians, regardless of age or income status

· Ensuring all Hamiltonians have access to team-based primary care

· Increasing funding for our local hospitals so that no one needs to be cared for in a hallway

· Amending the Residential Tenancies Act to increase protections for renters against eviction and above-guideline rent increases

· Increasing social assistance rates above the poverty line

· Ensuring our public schools are adequately funded and families have access to affordable child-care

· And much more! 

Thank-you Dr. Lennox for engaging with Hamiltonians in The Hamiltonian!

 Note: The Hamiltonian remains an unbiased media source. Members of all political stripes will be guests on The Hamiltonian from time to time.