There doesn’t seem to be any end to the dispute between the provincial government and the Ontario Optometry Association.
Robin Martin is the associate minister of health and says the OAO has refused to come to the table and negotiate.
“We’re extremely disappointed that at the urging of the Ontario Optometrists Association, some optometrists have chosen to withhold publicly funding services for our youth and seniors,” Martin told the Ontario Legislature on Monday.
“It’s really due to the fact the OAO continues to decline an independent third-party mediator’s invitation to come back to the table.”
Martin adds the OAO continues to drag its feet.
“It’s really concerning because they continue to tell the public they are at the table, when in fact they are not. And the current impasse lies squarely at the feet of the OAO, which instead of participating in these good-faith negotiations, is choosing to demand an outcome before allowing negotiations to start.”
Martin says the government has promised almost an 8.5% increase and a one-time payment of $39 million for increases the optometrists didn’t receive for providing OHIP eye services for the past decade.
In the meantime, the Optometrist Association of Ontario is sticking to its guns and not offering provincially funded eye exams.
Dr. Kristi Bruni says the Ontario government still hasn’t promised to increase the cost of eye exams.
“We are waiting for the government to come to the table and make meaningful negotiations where we have a long-term solution to this problem, where we have a framework for negotiating our terms of service, every few years, like other health care professionals.”
Ontario optometrists have withheld OHIP services since the beginning of September as a result of their dispute with the government.
