Support Safe Staffing Ratios and Health Care for ALL

For years senior management has understaffed our units, clinics, floors, teams and programs. This has resulted in: 

• Longer wait times 
• Service closures 
• Potentially life-threatening delays in care 
• Deskilling health-care work 
• Staff leaving their jobs 

Did you know? 

• For every 10 nurses that are hired in Ontario, six leave their jobs. 
• Ontario is 25,000 registered nurses behind the national average.  

No, American-style private, for-profit health care will worsen the understaffing crisis by diverting money from front line staff to corporations looking to turn a profit. There is only one pool of health-care staff, so as more private, for-profit health care facilities pop up, they will continue to siphon staff away from our public health-care system and make matters worse. 

Right now, the Ford Conservatives are trying to Americanize our health care and jeopardize our Canadian values of caring for our neighbours by: 

• Selling our public health-care services to private, for-profit corporations. 
• Diverting your taxpayer money from front line staff to private corporations. 
• Allowing private corporations to charge OHIP more and pass on additional care costs to you. 
• Paying private clinics at least 2.5 times more than public hospitals to do specific surgeries and procedures. 

This is all part of the Ford Conservative’s privatization playbook: defund, deny, deflect. 

Once petitions are signed and completed, we will give them to an MPP that supports staffing ratios. That MPP will present your petitions to the Legislative Assembly during a regular meeting of the House to show how much support there is for staffing ratios. These presentations are recorded in the Hansard (official transcript) and the official record of Votes and Proceedings.

All petitions that are presented to the government must receive a response. The response goes to the Clerk and the MPP who presented the petition. The MPP sends it to ONA. The Clerk keeps an index of all the petitions presented during the parliamentary session. This means that there is a record of your voices and of all the voices of people who signed legislative petitions. There can be no denying that staffing ratios is a demand shared by many.  

A legislative petition must meet the following rules:

• It must ask for an action that is within the jurisdiction of the Legislative Assembly.
• It must use clear and respectful language.
• The text of the petition must be at the top of every page of signatures.
• All signatures must be original. They must be written directly on the petition.
• Each petitioner must print his or her name and address and sign his or her name under the text of the petition.
• Petitioners must be residents of Ontario.
• The petition must be addressed to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
• The petition must be written, typewritten, or printed. Emailed, faxed, photocopied, or online petitions are not allowed.

Please complete the right-hand side of the petition with your information (collected by, bargaining unit, cell, email) and mail the completed legislative petitions to:

Ontario Nurses’ Association
c/o Stacey Papernick, Member Mobilizer
85 Grenville Street
Toronto, ON M5S 3A2

Only original legislative petitions copies will be accepted by the legislature. Photocopies or scans will not be accepted by the legislature.

If a legislative petition sheet is missing a first name last name, address, postal code and/or signature, the individual signatory will not be accepted by the legislature. The individual names will be voided, but the rest of the sheet can be submitted.

To ensure every signatory is accounted for please ensure they fill out their first and last name, address, postal code and signature.

• Ontario has the worst registered nurse(RN)-to-population ratio in Canada according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).[1]
• The government needs to hire 25,000 net more RNs just to catch up to the national average.
• Ontario's independent Financial Accountability Office projects that there will be a province-wide shortage of 33,000 nurses and personal support workers (PSWs) by 2028.[2]
• Staffing ratios improve retention and recruitment by ensuring a set number of nurses and health-care professionals are working at all times to provide patient care. This reduces burn out by making workloads more manageable.
• Sacramento, California experienced a 69 per cent decrease in nursing vacancies within four years following the implementation of ratios.[3]
• In Victoria, Australia, the number of employed nurses grew by more than 24 per cent with over 7,000 inactive nurses returning to the workforce after the implementation of ratios.[4]
• Ratios reduce instances of abuse and violence which is prevalent. Nine in 10 nurses experienced some form of abuse while at work in the last year alone.[5]
• Ratios improve patient outcomes. Each additional patient per nurse jeopardizes quality care, increasing the length of hospital stays and risk of mortality.[6]

[1] Canadian Institute for Health Information. Nursing in Canada, 2023, data tables.  nursing-in-canada-2014-2023-data-tables-en.xlsx

[2] Financial Accountability Office of Ontario. Ontario Health Sector: Spending Plan Review. March 8, 2023. Financial Accountability Office of Ontario

[3] Research from the BC Nurses’ Union. Minimum Nurse-to-patient Rario FAQ. Minimum Nurse-to-Patient Ratio FAQ | BC Nurses' Union

[4] Research from the BC Nurses’ Union. Minimum Nurse-to-patient Rario FAQ. Minimum Nurse-to-Patient Ratio FAQ | BC Nurses' Union

[5] CFNU Member Survey Report. March 2024. Pg. 25. 65f2170954d430c73820ef18_2024 CFNU Members Survey - Web.pdf

[6] Lasater, KB et al. Evidence that reducing patient-to-nurse staffing ratios can save lives and money. National Institute of Nursing Research. May 2021. Evidence that Reducing Patient-to-Nurse Staffing Ratios Can Save Lives and Money | National Institute of Nursing Research

• Health spending per person in Ontario is the lowest in Canada. Ford spends only $4,889 per person and this is 15.5 per cent below the spending average of the other provinces.[7] 
• Between 2017 and 2024, reported transfer payments from the government to private Independent Health Facilities increased by 37 per cent. This money should have been used to support Ontario’s public health-care system.
• Due to underfunding, primary, home and community care workers are paid less than hospital workers.
• Due to underfunding, community health centres are $2 billion behind on wages compared to hospitals and other sectors.[8]
• During the peak of the pandemic, the government refused to spend $1.7 billion in dedicated health funding.[9]
• The Ford government introduced Bill 60 which increases costly for-profit clinics in Ontario.
• Shoulder surgeries in private Ontario clinics cost four times more than in the public system.[10]
• During the pandemic, for-profit homes had 78 per cent more resident deaths compared to non-profit homes. Ford continues to reward for-profit homes by granting them licences to operate.
• An Auditor General report from December 2023 found that Ford’s increased use of private, for-profit nursing agencies contributed to staffing shortages at public hospitals.[11]

[7] Financial Accountability Office of Ontario. 2022-23 Interprovincial Budget Comparison. Financial Accountability Office of Ontario

[8] Eckler. Ontario Community Health Compensation Markey Salary Review. November 2023. Ontario-Community-Health-Compensation-Study.pdf

[9] Gray, Jeff. Ontario underspent health budget by $1.7-billion in 2022-23, watchdog says. Globe and Mail. Ontario underspent health budget by $1.7-billion in 2022-23, watchdog says - The Globe and Mail

[10] Ontario Health Coalition. The Ford Government’s Plan to Privatize Ontario’s Public Hospital Services. September 2024. www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/briefing-note-the-ford-governments-plan-to-privatize-ontarios-public-hospital-services/

[11] Office of the Auditor General of Ontario. December 2023. Value-for-Money Audit: Emergency Departments. https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/annualreports/arreports/en23/AR_emergencydepts_en23.pdf