Despite nursing shortage crisis, Ford leaves out healthcare workers from proposed foreign labour legislation

October 21, 2021

QUEEN’S PARK — Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to the government’s proposed bill that would remove barriers facing foreign-trained professionals:

“Ontario is in a nursing shortage crisis, with hundreds of thousands of vacant positions at hospitals.

Yet the government has left healthcare workers off its list of proposed legislation that would remove barriers facing foreign-trained professionals.

For weeks I’ve been calling on Doug Ford to address the nursing shortage crisis with a comprehensive retention and recruitment strategy.

A key component is streamlining the lengthy and cumbersome College of Nurses of Ontario process of granting licenses to qualified internationally educated nurses.

Nurses are burnt out, and many are leaving the profession because of poor working conditions, unfair wages and staffing shortages. They’re overworked and underpaid.

By leaving nurses off the list, Doug Ford is ignoring a key solution and is only making the nursing shortage crisis worse.”

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