TORONTO - Premier Dalton McGuinty said Friday he can't promise that nurses won't lose their jobs as hospitals struggle to balance their books, but he tried to soothe their concerns with assurances that more nurses will be hired over the next few years.
"I can't guarantee that no Ontario hospital will ever take it upon itself to lay off nurses or move them from one department to another,'' McGuinty said in a speech at the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario's annual general meeting.
"I can't guarantee that. But I can guarantee that our commitment to nurses is unwavering.''
The premier, whose mother is a retired nurse, also announced the province will open at least three nurse practitioner-led clinics this year, prompting cheers and applause.
McGuinty said he was so impressed with the clinic in Sudbury, Ont., that he toured Thursday that he asked Health Minister George Smitherman to see if the province could move ahead with its plan to open 25 such clinics.
"We are absolutely committed to expanding the role of nurses here in Ontario,'' he said.
"We are absolutely committed to improving working conditions for our nurses. We are absolutely committed to giving expression to how greatly, as a society, we value our nurses.''
McGuinty and Smitherman came under fire earlier this week after reports surfaced that two Toronto-area hospitals were planning to cut up to 220 jobs over three years to balance their books.
Smitherman had suggested that nurses who found themselves "displaced'' by the planned cuts at the Ajax and Pickering Hospital and Centenary Health Centre in Toronto will have many opportunities to find work elsewhere under a government plan to hire more nurses.
By law, Ontario hospitals are forbidden from carrying deficits, and many are racing to balance their books -- which many fear will result in cuts to services and a decline in patient care.
Dire predictions of illegal deficits have been circulating for weeks. Last month, numbers from the Ontario Hospital Association suggested 75 of the province's 154 public hospitals are facing a deficit for the fiscal year that started April 1, increasing to 104 the following year.
But McGuinty said his government is so devoted to health care that he took the difficult step of imposing a health tax in 2004 even though the Liberals promised no new taxes.
"Growing up in my family, I know how hard parents work, how tough it was to make ends meet, but I've asked those kinds of parents and parents everywhere (to) put more money through your taxes into government,'' he said.
"So we are going to the wall for health care. But more than just money, you need to understand is that George and I -- and our entire government -- are not just bringing money. We're bringing goodwill.''
