NDP solution would improve care by stopping private nursing agencies' price gouging, staff poaching

QUEEN'S PARK – On Tuesday, Official Opposition NDP Health critic France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) and Long-term Care Critic Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls) introduced the Healthcare Staffing Agencies Act 2023 to stop private nursing agencies price gouging and staff poaching. They were joined by Ontario Nursing Association President Erin Ariss and Dave Verch, Vice President of CUPE's Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, for a press conference.

"Payment to private for-profit staffing agencies from our hospitals and long-term care homes have increased exponentially as more and more nurses and allied health professionals are recruited out of their workplaces," Gélinas stated. "Private staffing agencies are making money hand over fist, and it's draining our healthcare budgets at an alarming rate."

Healthcare Staffing Agencies Act 2023 ensures that every hospital and long-term care home in a community of 8,000 residents or more shall develop a plan to limit its spending on healthcare staffing agencies under a specified timeline. Projects must be done in consultation with frontline healthcare workers. The Bill would mandate agencies receiving $400,000 or more to be covered by the Auditor General, Patient Ombudsman and Integrity Commissioner, and their employees to be included on the Sunshine List.

"Members of our caucus have been approached by whistle-blowers who are ashamed of the profits their agencies are making," concluded Gélinas.

"It's no secret we face a frontline staffing crisis in health care and long-term care," added Gates. "This government has actively worked to make the crisis worse with wage-limiting legislation like Bill 124. Now, we see private staffing agencies exploiting that crisis. It's not sustainable; it's pulling resources from care, and seniors will ultimately suffer if action isn't taken against these predatory staffing agencies. What these private, for-profit agencies are doing is gouging, plain and simple."

QUICK FACTS:

• The Bill would forbid healthcare staffing agencies from paying their workers more than 10 percent above the existing rate in the workplace and from poaching employees.
• The legislation would also ensure that all healthcare staffing agencies established after the Act became law would operate as not-for-profit.

ADDITIONAL QUOTES:

Erin Ariss, the President of the Ontario Nurses Association:

"The Ontario Nurses' Association wholeheartedly supports this Bill. Our publicly funded hospitals and long-term care homes are seeing their budgets drained by these greedy, for-profit agency owners who bill obscene amounts of money. The provincial government has seriously worsened the shortage of nurses in this province through its misguided legislation and withholding of public healthcare funding. It is no secret how to retain and recruit nurses in our public, non-profit system. What we need is a government willing to take action to do so. Fund our public hospitals and long-term care homes adequately, improve the working conditions of our nurses, treat them with respect, and stop profiteers such as private nursing agencies from making off with a big chunk of taxpayers' money."

Dave Verch, Vice President of CUPE's Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU/CUPE):

"The Ford government must eliminate two-tier staffing in our hospitals. It's unfair for workers to get paid vastly different rates for the same work, with agency staff getting paid as much as 300 percent more. It's contributing to a staffing crisis with stark consequences for patient care. Instead of wasting our tax dollars on for-profit nursing agencies, the government must invest in full-time jobs, decent working conditions, and fair compensation for all staff. That's the efficient way to deliver quality care."