Ontario Liberal leadership candidate Bonnie Crombie is proposing to increase the new minimum wage for personal support workers and nurses in Ontario, Global News has learned, as part of her health care platform designed to convince members before a leadership vote.
Crombie, who has consistently placed first in the Liberal leadership race, is set to unveil her health care agenda alongside Liberal MP Adil Shamji, who dropped out of the race in September to support the frontrunner .
As part of the deal, Crombie agreed to adopt Shamji’s health care policies largely inspired by his position as a front-line emergency physician.
The main theme of Crombie’s health care platform focuses on support for universal health care and opposition to the Ford government’s health care policies, from wage limits to the rise of clinics for-profit to combat the surgical backlog.
Doug Ford’s threats of creeping privatization of our health care system are what motivated me to enter this leadership race,” Crombie said. “Our single-payer, publicly funded universal health care system is valuable to Ontario families, including mine, and we must protect it.
The policy document, provided to Global News, said the Crombie-led Liberal party would defend the Canada Health Act “in the spirit and letter of the law” and suggested enforcement tools would be used to hold the “bad actors” responsible.
To reduce the province’s surgical backlog, Crombie promises to increase hospital operating room hours and reduce the province’s reliance on private, for-profit surgical centers.
The document, however, does not mention what Crombie would do with existing community surgical and diagnostic center private surgical clinics providing OHIP-funded services that expanded under the Ford government as a solution to surgical wait times.
The policy document does not provide the funding estimated to be necessary to increase operating room hours.
Crombie also promises to reverse the controversial closure of Minden’s emergency department and suggests increasing health care funding to address pressures on emergency rooms and prevent closure.
One of the most expensive promises, however, concerns compensation for health care workers.
In addition to the repeal of Bill 124, the Ford government’s controversial legislation that capped salary increases for thousands of broader public service employees, including health care workers. The Crombies platform promises to increase the base minimum wage for thousands of healthcare workers. .
According to the policy document, the minimum wage for personal support workers would start at $25 per hour, while the pay scale for licensed practical nurses would start at $35 per hour.
The move, the platform document notes, aims to erase the wage gap between health care workers in hospitals, long-term care, and home and community care that unions say have contributed to a shortage of health personnel in the provinces. retirement homes, especially after the pandemic.
However, this political point was priceless.
Crombie has until the end of November to convince around 80,000 party members to give him their support.
Other candidates for the Liberal leadership include MPs Nate Erskine-Smith and Yasir Naqvi, as well as MPP Ted Hsu.
The party will announce the next leader on December 2.
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