TORONTO, ON, May 25, 2026 – More than 30 registered nurses (RNs) and nurse practitioners (NPs), members of the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre (PQWCHC) are calling on their employer to close the wage gap and offer fair wages as they head to conciliation seeking a new collective agreement. After years of wage freezes or minimal wage increases, the group of highly-skilled nurses are struggling to make ends meet, forcing them to look for jobs in other health-care sectors.
“Most community health centres struggle to recruit and retain staff because they pay less than other sectors like hospitals,” explains ONA Provincial President, Erin Ariss, RN. “Employers cannot expect nurses to keep doing more with less. They play a valuable role in keeping our communities healthy and should be paid fairly for the care they provide, or they will be forced to leave.”
Community health centres offer holistic care to clients with varying socioeconomic backgrounds. At PQWCHC, nurses care for more than 10,000 clients in southwest Toronto, and run programs such as vaccination clinics, health promotion, wellness programming, counselling, mental health support and harm reduction education. Without their expertise, many equity-deserving clients who face barriers to accessing health care can slip through the cracks, resulting in worse health outcomes. NPs can also diagnose, treat, prescribe medications, order tests and provide referrals which often helps decrease pressure on surrounding hospitals.
Ariss notes, “More than 2 million Ontarians are without a primary care provider. This crisis is the direct result of years of underfunding and poor wages. If the provincial government wants to connect everyone to primary care by 2029, they need to hold employers accountable and ensure public funding is used for fair wages now. Otherwise, Ontarians won’t get the care they need and deserve.”
A second day of conciliation between nurses and their employer is scheduled for May 25. Nurses are determined to secure a new negotiated deal with fair wages so that PQWCHC can recruit and retain more staff, improve workloads and ensure high-quality, timely care for clients.
ONA is the union representing 68,000 health-care professionals, along with 18,000 nursing student affiliates, who provide care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, community settings, clinics, and industry.
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