The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) finalized a new contract for 60,000 hospital nurses on Sept. 3. Although it includes a pay increase, it does not address the need for safer staffing levels. Nurses say lower nurse-to-patient ratios are necessary to provide adequate care and to ensure the safety of nurses. 

“It ultimately impacts unsafe care for patients and families. I feel like we’re never going to get there,” says Eram Chhogala, a Toronto emergency RN who describes feeling “disappointment and betrayal” after another failed attempt to negotiate this into the new contract.

RN and Nepean MPP Tyler Watt says the health minister is not listening and the government is not doing enough to attract nurses to the profession. “How are we going to draw other nurses into the system that are actually trained – then we can actually implement nursing ratios,” he says. (CP24, Sept. 4).