Ontario health advocates call on province for more funding to solve staffing crisis

Ontario health advocates are calling for more funding from the provincial government to alleviate the staffing crisis across the board.

The Ontario government will be tabling its next budget next Thursday, with health making up the largest part of the budget.

“Our message is simple: properly fund our hospitals,” said Jillian Watt, president of CUPE 7800 in Hamilton.

According to Watt, the province’s funding is to blame for a $25 million deficit, preventing it from hiring new staff to improve wait times.

With the new provincial budget coming next week, Watt is calling for an 8 per cent increase in funding over the next 5 years.

Watt says that will properly fund and stabilize hospitals within the area.

“The impact on patients, the wait times, the excessive wait times for diagnostic services, the ER wait times,” said Watt, “we are looking at hallway healthcare – it’s horrendous.”

Watt says all these factors set a clear picture in regards to staffing.

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Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), agrees with Watt.

Grinspun says homecare nurses and primary care nurses get significantly lower pay than those that work in hospitals.

Pay parity is a top priority for the RNAO.

“Not only do we want to increase compensation across all sectors, we also want to make sure that we have more RNs and more nurse practitioners working so the workload gets spread out more better,” said Grinspun.

“Children bear the brunt of the economic impacts that affect parents,” said Tatum Wilson, CEO of Children’s Mental Health Ontario (CMHO).

The CMHO advocates for increased funding for community mental health services.

With their staff being paid 23 per cent less than hospital staff, they say there’s a high turnover rate on a much-needed service.

They would like to see $142 million allocated in next week’s budget over the next three years, to increase pay and retain more staff.

“Even if kids are able to get service,” said Wilson, “if there’s some in place, there is the process of having to retell your story, engage with a new provider, build trust and build relationships. It’s really hard.”

The 2025 Ontario budget is expected to be tabled May 15.

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