|
TORONTO — With every industry suffering from staff storage, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how Ontario is going to unlock its full economic potential. At the moment, there is a massive influx of retirees leaving the job market without a substantial replacement workforce to compensate. Yet, according to Statistics Canada, Ontario’s employment dropped by 24,700 in June. However, Vic Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade seems to be optimistic. “After several consecutive months of job growth, today’s news is a reminder that the government’s efforts to attract job creators to our province is now more important than ever,” said Fedeli.” Our government, led by Premier Doug Ford, will leave no stone unturned when it comes to building the infrastructure necessary to unlock the full potential of the province’s economy. This includes highways, transit and the road to the Ring of Fire.” Since taking office in 2018, the Ford government has been getting it done by adding 531,000 jobs, nevertheless, there is still a looming challenge ahead as critical sectors in the north such as health care are in desperate need of employees. The NDP is calling on Ford’s Conservatives to recognize the crisis in emergency departments across the province. As another rash of emergency department shutdowns were scheduled for this weekend and the foreseeable future, the NDP agrees with Fedeli when he says, “with existing challenges, including an uncertain economic global climate, it’s all hands on deck. Now is the time for unity and working together.” However, The NDP and Conservatives do not normally see eye to eye on exactly how to get it done. “We have reached a tipping point. ERs are being forced to turn off the lights because of low staffing levels,” said NDP Interim Leader Peter Tabuns. “What will families go through in the coming days if dad has chest pain or a child has an accident? Finding the doors to the closest ER locked is a terrifying thought. Rushing hours down the highway to the next closest hospital when every second counts — it’s a living nightmare.” With Lake of the Woods District Hospital preparing for the worst-case scenario and Red Lake’s Margret Cochenour Memorial Hospital’s near-miss closure last week, new closures are taking place at Clinton Public Hospital, Listowel Memorial Hospital, Seaforth Community Hospital, St. Marys Memorial Hospital and Wingham & District Hospital over this past weekend and in the week ahead. Yet, the Conservative government insists, “by reducing the cost of doing business in the province by $7 billion a year and injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into Ontario’s venture capital ecosystem, we have created the best possible conditions for businesses to grow,” said Fedeli. Perhaps in the private sector cutting costs, but the cuts to the public sector would be devastating as inflation has already put the public in a position where they have to make a hard choice between rent, gas, and food. “On behalf of the NDP, I am imploring the Conservative government to recognize that we are in a crisis, and take action to protect people’s lives,” explains Tabuns. “We need to recruit new health care staff, attract those who have left the profession, get qualified internationally trained workers into hospitals, and stop the exodus of doctors and nurses that is still happening right now, as we speak.” Health care workers still on the job are exhausted. Hospital staff are working 24 hours shift just to ensure that departments including emergency are available to the public, but they are burning out fast. And with a forced wage-suppression law still looming over their heads, what incentives, other than the kindness of the hearts, keep them from leaving the health care sector for anything that will allow them to balance their personal and work life? According to Tabuns, “health care workers are being disrespected by the Doug Ford government, which forced a wage-suppression law, Bill 124, on them.” Across the country, health care staff have been offered recruitment and retention bonuses in Quebec, while in hospitals in the United States news outlets like the Wall Street Journal are offering signing bonuses to attract nurses from places like Ontario. The NDP is calling for the health staffing crisis to be turned around, starting by:
If the Ford government does what the NDP is asking of them, it’ll be hard to reduce the 7 billion that Fedeli is looking to do. Fedeli explains that “over the past 18 months Ontario has welcomed the highest amount of private-sector venture capital investment in our history. We’ve attracted over $2 billion from global bio manufacturers to produce next-generation medicines and vaccines, as well as $14 billion by global auto and electric battery manufacturers to build the car of the future.” Yet, it is hard to say if that 16 billion the Ford government claims to have attracted will be fed into the public sector. Kenora MP Eric Mililo seems to think the growing problems in the public sector are too much for the province to handle and is suggesting that federal assistance might get it done. “I spoke with Q104 this week to discuss the on-going healthcare crisis in northwestern Ontario. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us there is a much greater need for federal partnership to support healthcare beyond financial transfers,” Mililo said on Twitter. Let’s see if Trudeau’s government is up for the challenge. |
