News & Analysis

Ontario’s Liberal government is already infamous for multiple, billion dollar boondoggles such as cancelling gas plants to win votes, the eHealth scandal, and the ORNG air ambulance fiasco to name a few. A recent Globe & Mail article has shone a light on the latest wasteful Liberal program. The government has diverted millions of public health care dollars away from genuine medical necessities, to pay instead, for controversial sex change surgeries.

The Globe’s June 25th article reveals that during the 2008-2009 fiscal year, the Liberals quietly added sex-changes to the list of procedures that are funded by taxpayers through the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), after having been delisted for a decade by the PC government of Mike Harris.

Our research reveals that the relisting by OHIP of sex-reassignment surgery (SRS) was done on the final day of George Smitherman’s term as Health Minister. Was it a parting gift so to speak, by the gay-activist, former Liberal MPP, to his LGBT supporters?

During that first year of OHIP coverage, the Liberals funnelled a minimal amount, approximately $22,000 health care dollars towards SRS. Since that time, however, the number of people approved by OHIP for SRS has exploded… along with the cost to Ontario taxpayers.

In the fiscal year of 2014-2015, the Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care diverted $2.2 million health care dollars away from genuine medical procedures, and funneled it instead towards sex-change surgery.

This was the same year in which OHIP refused to pay for specialized cancer treatment to save the life of Anne Mitchell, a Brampton mother of two. It was also the year in which OHIP denied coverage to a 12-year old girl, Madi Vanstone, who would die from cystic fibrosis without the costly drug.

Signalling even more explosive costs yet to come, is the admission that nearly 1,000 people are currently waiting to be approved for SRS. Since the procedure costs between $10,000 - $60,000, taxpayers could be on the hook for another $60 million.

It is appalling that at the same time that the Wynne Liberals are increasing funding to what is in essence, an unnecessary cosmetic surgery, they are busily delisting numerous medical services, such as physiotherapy for seniors in long-term care facilities, and cutting funds to other areas, such as reducing the number of glucose monitoring strips available to diabetics.

The province’s severe shortage of doctors, nurses and life-saving MRI machines also continues. This is for the simple reason that there’s not enough money to go around. Yet somehow, the Liberals have made it a priority to pay for sex changes.

This so called "healthcare priority" seems all the more bizarre when one considers the evidence which shows that sex change surgery will actually increase the suicide rate for people who go down that path. The most authoritative study of the effects of SRS on the psychological well-being of post-operative transsexuals was done in Sweden, over a 30-year period. It found that 10 to 15 years after SRS, their suicide rate was actually 20 times higher than comparable peers.

Although it is commonly argued these days that SRS is necessary because people suffering with gender identity confusion are at risk of suicide, a logical reading of the evidence suggests the exact opposite. The procedure will foreseeably push many people with gender identity disorder to commit suicide later in life. OHIP funding of SRS with scarce taxpayer dollars would therefore appear to be fuelled by an ideological, politically-correct fad, rather than medicine or science.

To express concerns, contact your Member of Provincial Parliament.