Ontario health minister's denial of nurses' 'mass exodus' feels 'painful' for some
Ontario health minister's denial of nurses' 'mass exodus' feels 'painful' for some
Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the province has “not seen a mass exodus of nurses” leaving the profession – a remark some nurses say is “dismissive” and “painful” to hear.
“In fact, we have not seen a mass exodus of nurses leaving the system,” Jones said while speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park on Wednesday.
“What we have are nurses and health-care practitioners who have a lot of options to choose when they want to practice nursing in the province of Ontario.”
A day earlier, a court deemed Bill 124, which capped public sector workers’ wages, including nurses, unconstitutional. Soon after, the Ontario government released a statement expressing their intention to appeal the decision.
Ever since the Ford government put forward Bill 124 in 2019 to help eliminate Ontario’s deficit, nursing unions have argued that limiting workers’ wages to a maximum of one per cent for three years has contributed to nurses leaving the industry in droves.
“It was heartbreaking,” Marida Etherington told CTV News Toronto, nodding to her own departure from the sector. For nearly 30 years, she worked as a nurse, most recently at St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Toronto.
Just a couple weeks after pandemic lockdowns were enforced, she said she saw signals of how the health-care sector was being handled and decided she needed to leave and start her own business as a RN psychotherapist.
“I had planned on staying at St Joe’s until I retired, that was my plan, at least 12 years,” she said.
But instead, she began seeing nurses as clients. “This past year, I’ve had emails from at least 25 nurses who want to change the kind of work that they are doing. I’d say we’re in the hundreds of nurses who are looking for options,” Etherington said.
“If we haven’t had a total collapse, it’s because of the dedication of the people that are still here,” she added.
Birgit Umaigba, a RN in the Greater Toronto Area, said she’s witnessed her colleagues leaving the profession firsthand, some taking administrative roles, others heading south of the border where nurses are paid higher wages.
“Just a few weeks ago, I was on a unit with my student and there was only two nurses for 27 patients,” she said. “That’s dangerous.”
Umaigba said hearing the minister of health deny that nurses are leaving the sector was “painful” for her.
“I don't understand who she is talking to and why she is being so dismissive of our reality,” she said. “Has the minister visited an ER recently or ever?”
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
After raising interest rates eight consecutive times, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem told an audience in Quebec City on Tuesday that inflation is showing signs of 'turning the corner' and that the coming year 'will be different.'
Residents digging through a collapsed building in a northwest Syrian town discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble from this week's devastating earthquake, relatives and a doctor said Tuesday.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars, a CTV News Toronto investigation has found.
Canadians now believe they need $1.7 million in savings in order to retire, a 20 per cent increase from 2020, according to a new BMO survey. The eye-watering figure is the largest sum since BMO first started surveying Canadians about their retirement expectations 13 years ago.
Three men who disappeared after planning to rap at a Detroit party were killed by multiple gunshots, police said Tuesday, five days after their bodies were found in a vacant, rat-infested building.
A report from British Columbia's coroner says a prominent anti-vaccine and COVID critic died in 2021 of a drug overdose, although he also tested positive for the illness post-mortem.
Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands announced Tuesday that they plan to provide Ukraine with at least 100 refurbished Leopard 1 battle tanks, a pledge that comes as Kyiv anticipates a new Russian offensive around the anniversary of its invasion.
The Laurier Macdonald High School in Montreal's Saint-Leonard borough was placed into lockdown Tuesday afternoon due to a threat, but Montreal police say they believe it appears to be unfounded.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
London police are searching for three suspects who allegedly broke into a home in the downtown core on Monday and assaulted an occupant with a baseball bat, before stealing cash and drugs.
Multiple robbery, weapons and drug charges have been laid against a man and a woman who police allege robbed a Walmart in Goderich last month, according to Huron County OPP.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) is appealing for witnesses after an arrest in Stratford sent a 34-year-old man to hospital for treatment of a serious injury.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars, a CTV News Toronto investigation has found.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
There is a new sign of financial issues with an Ottawa construction company that suddenly closed, leaving customers with unfinished projects unable to recoup their losses.
Two people have died in a serious single-vehicle crash in Kingsville, a third person was injured and transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Windsor police say one person has been arrested and they are looking for another suspect after a man was beaten near downtown, resulting in life-threatening injuries.
A former medical student who claims he fatally shot a fellow student in self-defence during a drug deal in Halifax denied Tuesday he planned to kill the man and steal the marijuana he was carrying.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The Tsuut'ina Police Service, which serves a community west of Calgary, says it has spoken with more victims of former Dances With Wolves actor Nathan Chasing Horse and additional charges will be laid against him in the coming days.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
A passenger plane packed with donations and emergency supplies is set to travel from Vancouver, B.C., to Istanbul on Tuesday, as the death toll from Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkiye and Syria surpasses 6,200.
A report from British Columbia's coroner says a prominent anti-vaccine and COVID critic died in 2021 of a drug overdose, although he also tested positive for the illness post-mortem.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
