Ontario unveils plan for future pandemics, ‘stiff penalties’ for those who resell government PPE

Toronto.com
March 30, 2022

Ontario has unveiled a plan it says will get the province more pandemic-ready, with a handful of new measures such as learning grants for health care workers who commit to working in underserviced communities for two years.

There will also be unspecified “stiff penalties” for anyone reselling government-supplied personal protective equipment in new legislation from Premier Doug Ford’s government that includes previously announced measures such as making $3 hourly wage increases permanent for personal support workers in nursing homes.

“We cannot allow ourselves to be unprepared again,” Health Minister Christine Elliott told a news conference Tuesday.

Acknowledging that “front-line workers were faced with inadequate tools to fight the initial wave of COVID-19,” the plan states “the job is not done and we need to continue to build our capacity to respond.”

It comes with the June 2 provincial election just over two months away.

Under a new “learn and stay grant” outlined in the plan, for example, 1,500 nursing students annually who commit to work for two years in areas with severe nursing shortages will be entitled to full tuition reimbursement.

The legislation, if passed before the legislature dissolves in early May for the four-week official election campaign, would also empower the government “to make temporary for permanent compensation enhancements where needed to address emerging issues,” such as high attrition levels that led to a series of temporary wage hikes for personal support workers.

The measure follows complaints from nurses, who worked in dangerous conditions and for long hours of overtime in the pandemic, that their wage increases have been capped at one per cent annually under Ford’s Bill 124, which applies to other public sector workers as well.

Ford has refused demands he scrap Bill 124 but has offered nurses who toiled through the two years of the pandemic a $5,000 “retention bonus” with half to come before the election and half in the fall. Several health care unions have called the money a “pay-as-you-vote gimmick.”

One nurse told the Star recently that it works out to about $17 per 12-hour shift over the pandemic.

Other measures in the new legislation would end the requirement of Canadian work experience for internationally trained medical professions seeking professional accreditation here and reward them for speaking other languages, although no details were provided on how this would work in practical terms.

 

The goal of making accreditation easier is to “help address immediate labour shortages,” government documents said.

Two weeks ago, the province announced it was funding more spots in medical school and residency training, adding 160 undergraduate and 295 post-graduation positions respectively over the next five years.

Those spots include new med schools at Ryerson -- slated to open in 2025 -- and the newly independent Northern Ontario School of Medicine.

The province is also pledging more than $41 million for hands-on learning placements for nursing students studying in Ontario colleges and universities.

There have been calls for more doctors and health professionals across the province in part because of the long hours and burnout they’ve experienced over the past two years during COVID.

Residency spots are also needed, given they are in short supply across the country for medical school graduates and that experience is required before they are allowed to practice.

All six medical schools in the province will be getting extra spots -- the University of Toronto, Queen’s, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Western, McMaster and the University of Ottawa.

Ryerson University’s medical school will receive funding for 80 undergraduate spots and 95 postgrad positions when it opens in Brampton in 2025.

At the University of Toronto, the new Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health is included in the expansion, as is Queen’s University’s Lakeridge Health Campus in Oshawa.

The government has also expanded nursing programs across the province.