Ontario’s Health Minister Sylvia Jones is defending her government’s approach to nursing compensation after internal documents, obtained by Global News, revealed that the province was aware of the negative impacts of Bill 124 on the ability to retain health-care workers.
The Ford government has been facing scathing criticism from health care unions and opposition critics after key briefing documents given to Jones in the summer of 2022 acknowledged that “concerns about wage disparity via Bill 124” contributed to the current shortage of nurses in Ontario’s health-care system.
When asked directly about the documents, Jones sidestepped the question but instead touted the government’s retention bonuses offered to nurses who chose to remain in the system.
“There is no doubt that we have seen incredible work done by our health-care professionals, nurses, physicians working in emergency departments in a, frankly, challenging time as we still deal with the remnants of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses,” Jones told reporters at an unrelated news conference along with Peel Regional Police.
Jones said those challenging times in health care convinced the province to “give an additional $5,000 to full-time registered nurses” working in the province and offer personal support workers a $3-per-hour raise.
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While Minister Jones did not directly address Bill 124, she said the government understands the importance of ensuring that health-care staff are “looked after and protected.”
Peel Regional police, which was hosting the news conference, initially attempted to limit discussion by asking journalists to restrict their questions to the “topic of the day.”
A journalist at the event pushed back citing “freedom of press.”
The admissions, which were included in the Minister’s transition binder when she was appointed by Premier Doug Ford, led to swift backlash from the government’s political critics.
“It’s now clear that (Doug) Ford and (Sylvia) Jones have always known that Bill 124 was contributing to the staffing crisis in our hospitals,” Ontario NDP health critic France Gélinas said in response to Global News’ reporting.
“They knew Bill 124 was causing overworked and underpaid health-care workers to leave their positions. They just didn’t care.”
Opposition parties and nursing advocates called on the provincial government to repeal Bill 124. They also demanded the province abandon its appeal against a court decision that threw out the law as unconstitutional.
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