ADVOCACY
Bill 124 – Closing the Chapter
In our last advocacy update, we were waiting to hear the outcome of the Ford government’s appeal of Bill 124, the public sector wage cap legislation initially declared unconstitutional in late November 2022. In mid-February of this year, the Ontario Court of Appeals upheld the 2022 decision, leading the government to officially repeal the legislation.
WeRPN is proud to have played an important role in the advocacy campaigns against this harmful legislation, emphasizing its negative impact on RPNs across Ontario, and we are pleased to see it will be permanently repealed.
As always, we will continue to advocate on behalf of RPNs to the Ontario government to ensure the needs of our members – and our fellow health care workers across the province – are met, including appropriate wages and working environments. We continue to push for wage increases for all RPNs to address the wage compression and discrepancies across sectors that we know are impacting so many of our members.
LEGISLATION
Bill 135, Convenient Care at Home – Submission
In mid-November, we provided a submission for the government’s a consultation on Bill 135, the Convenient Care at Home Act, 2023. The legislation, which amends the Connecting Care Act 2019, established Ontario Health atHome, an amalgamation of Ontario’s 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) into a single organization.
WeRPN’s submission requested a coordinated effort that centred the voices, needs and concerns of nurses, during the transition process to ensure RPNs and the Ontarians they care for have a smooth transition from LHINs to Ontario Health atHome.
As contract processes are updated and the new agency is established, we recommended that the government consider specific actions, including implementing competitive and harmonized nursing wages (especially compensation for travel between client locations), legislated nurse-to-patient ratios, increased educational opportunities for nurses and a reduction of the overreliance on nursing agencies that has become so prevalent in our healthcare system.
BUDGET
WeRPN’s 2024 Submission
Our submission to Ontario’s 2024 Budget Consultation process focused on common sense solutions for solving Ontario’s persisting health human resource challenges, expanding on the above priorities.
The first recommendation to government is to implement methods to retain the nurses we already have through competitive and harmonized nursing wages and an improved working environment.
Although the role of RPNs aligns more closely with that of an RN, fair and professional compensation is not keeping pace with advancements in RPNs’ skills, experience and knowledge. The government of Ontario should take action to address wage compression for RPNs, increasing retention while properly reflecting RPNs’ value to the health system. In addition, we need government steps to create more supportive and safe work environments if we want to ensure RPNs can be retained and new nurses can be recruited.
The second recommendation is to legislate nurse-topatient ratios. There is ample evidence indicating the positive benefits of legislated nurse-to-patient ratios, not only for nurses but also for patients and health systems. It is critical that the Ontario government consider introducing nurse-to-patient ratios to ensure that workloads remain manageable and RPNs have the ability to provide optimal care for patients.
The third recommendation in our submission is to enhance educational opportunities for RPNs, including better access to professional development and streamlining bridging education to recognize RPN prior knowledge and experience. Together these actions could make significant strides toward mitigating staffing challenges.
Lastly, we are recommending decreasing reliance on for-profit nursing agencies. These agencies will no longer be needed once the other methods mentioned above are implemented to retain the nurses we have and encourage more to enter the sector. Further, the significant increase in costs associated with the overreliance on these agencies would be better directed to hiring more full-time nursing positions, increasing pay for the nurses already in the system and offering greater educational opportunities to ensure career advancement is available for those who want it.
RPNs know there is no solving Ontario’s nursing crisis until these fundamentals of retention and recruitment are in place. We look forward to the forthcoming Budget and the government’s response to our submission after we discuss it with the Minister of Health’s office.
We will provide an update on any major budget pieces that affect members and the broader health sector on our website and social media channels and in the next edition of our magazine.
