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Toronto likely to accept 2nd offer of free nurses
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CBC News- Toronto's budget committee has accepted an offer from the province to fund 11 nurse positions to help fight the city's bed bug problem.
The last time the province offered, city politicians — led by Mayor Rob Ford — turned it down.
In June the executive committee said it wouldn't accept the province's offer to pay for two nurses: one nurse to work with new immigrants and another to work in the city's poorer neighbourhoods.
At the time Ford said he didn't want to be on the hook to pay the nurses when the provincial money ran out.
The city's budget chief Coun. Mike Del Grande said he was inundated with 3,000 emails at the time, most asking why.
Del Grande said he got the message.
"We listen," he said, "even though people claim we don't. I get the drift."
On Tuesday the budget committee voted to accept $2 million from Queen's Park that will fund three permanent and eight temporary nurses to help mentally ill people deal with bed bugs.
Toronto's medical officer of heath, Dr. David McKeown, said the nurses will fill an important role.
"The nurse are very important to solving the bed bug problem in Toronto because we found that those who have most serious infestations are people with underlying mental illness," he said.
Coun. Doug Ford voted to accept the provincial money but pushed a motion through that ensures the jobs are eliminated if funding runs out.
Both Doug Ford and Del Grande say the money should be spent on exterminators, not nurses.
Premier Dalton McGuinty welcomed the decision.
"I'm glad they've taken us up on this," he said at Queen's Park. "It's a no-strings-attached offer."
The final decision will be made by the mayor's executive committee next month.
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