Doug Ford Claims He’s Made the Biggest Healthcare Investments in the ‘History of the Country’. Nurses Say That’s ‘Misleading’.

Doug Ford made some big claims about healthcare during Ontario’s leaders debate this week, but how close do the Ontario PC leader’s claims come to the truth? 

At a time where advocates say Ontario’s healthcare system is in “crisis” and healthcare workers are leaving the industry in droves, Canada’s biggest nurses union says many of Ford’s statements about healthcare are “misleading” and “baffling.” 

Among Ford’s misleading statements was one claim that Ford’s government has made the biggest investments in “the history of this country.”

“‘There’s no government in the history of this country that’s invested more. 30% more than the previous government, that’s over $30 billion,” Ford stated.

Despite Ford’s claim, Ontario’s financial accountability office notes the province had the lowest health spending in Canada in 2022-2023. 

The head of the Ontario Nurses Association says Ford’s numbers are “misleading at best.”

“Ontario’s financial accountability office found Ford is underspending on health care by $1.7 billion,” Erin Ariss, President, Ontario Nurses’ Association told PressProgress.

Ford went on to add that the government is attracting more healthcare workers to the system, at one point claiming he has personally hired “100,000 new nurses” since coming to office.

However, that statement also appears to be misleading and data from the Ontario College of Nurses shows that for every 10 nurses hired, six are leaving their job. 

Ontario is currently facing a shortage of 25,000 registered nurses. 

“The claim of 100,000 ‘new nurses’ is misleading,” Doug Allan, a senior CUPE Health Care researcher, told PressProgress. “They have not added 100,000 nurses. They may mean that 100,000 nurses have registered for the first time over this period – that is at least possible, but of course many nurses have left the profession. 

Ariss points out that Ontario is also far behind the rest of the country in numbers of nurses.

“CIHI statistics continue to show that Ontario still has the fewest RNs per capita in all of Canada,” Ariss said. “The nursing profession has attracted new registrants (an increase in first- time RN registrations compensating for a decline in RPN registrants) but many do not stay after their first year, and a growing number are looking for work outside the province.”

Despite Ford’s claims of increased investment in healthcare, Ariss says Ford’s government has done little to retain workers by improving wages or working conditions.

“He has taken no action on wage harmonization/parity to retain nurses and health-care professionals or implemented proven solutions such as staffing ratios.” ‘

“Ontarians see the impact of this with constant service closures, delays in care, increasingly complex health-care needs and worsening quality of care. In 2023 alone, hospital CEOs closed more than 203 emergency departments.”

Another talking point Ford brought up during the leaders’ debate about the government paying nurses for their education is also misleading, Ariss, says, pointing out, “ONA has been calling for the government to make nursing programs tuition-free, just like police programs.”

“Ford’s claim that he is covering tuition of all nurses is incorrect.”

“We believe Ford was referring to the learn and stay grant which is open to students who enroll in nursing programs – they get upfront funding for tuition, books and other direct educational costs in exchange for working in underserved communities. The context that he said this was about paying tuition for health care professionals, including doctors.”

“This program is fine and ONA believes it should be expanded,” Ariss said, but stressed “it is not covering the tuition of all nurses.”

The marginal increases in hiring new health care workers are also far from adequate to address the pressures on the healthcare system. 

“This is not enough to offset demand pressures from population growth, aging, and utilization. Population growth alone over the last five years has been 10.6%.  Societal aging has added a lot more need on top of this,” Allan said. 

“As discussed in OCHU’s summer brief, No Respite, hospital capacity is inadequate, the government’s hospital capacity plans fall far short of need, and the government has fallen far short of their own promises to increase LTC capacity.”