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?”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.