Ford Conservatives vote down bill for PSW permanent wage floor increase

QUEEN’S PARK — The Doug Ford government refused to set things right with personal support workers (PSWs) who are health care heroes, and voted down a bill to raise the wage floor for all personal support workers on Wednesday, said Sudbury NDP MPP Jamie West.

“Doug Ford chose not to support personal support workers in their long-term work for our seniors and our families,” said West.

“PSWs and the families they take care of, deserve so much better than this. This was an opportunity to show Ontario’s PSWs that we care about them as much as they care about our loved ones. Instead, Doug Ford and his Conservative MPPs voted down a bill that would have made a real difference in the lives of our PSWs. By raising their wage floor, PSWs could have had their work recognized with better pay to help them pay the bills. The Ford Conservatives did not care.”

The bill, Support Workers Pay Act, would have permanently raised the PSW wage floor to the temporary PSW pandemic pay rates and required that they are paid per kilometre travelled between work sites.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath committed in her long-term care and home care platform to raise PSW wages by $5 per hour if elected in 2022, and to turn notoriously part-time and temp PSW gigs into full-time careers.