“I’m happy to watch it burn.”
That’s how Erin Ariss recently described the long-awaited death of Bill 124, which she and her colleagues at the Ontario Nurses’ Association had fought tooth and nail since 2019.
From day one, the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act was deeply unpopular with essentially everyone outside the premier’s political orbit. Critics called this thinly veiled wage-restraint legislation, as it capped salary increases for workers in the broader public sector at 1 per cent a year for three years.
Bill 124 has also been blamed for driving skilled labour away from the public system and toward private capital — which many nurses and teachers in the public system will tell you was precisely Ford’s plan all along.
Global News reported last year that Health Minister Sylvia Jones had received briefing documents that indicated “concerns about wage disparity via Bill 124” were contributing to “retention issues.”
Thankfully, at the beginning of February, the Ontario Court of Appeal confirmed what nurses had long been telling us: Bill 124 is and was unconstitutional and violated collective-bargaining rights.
After years of aggressively defending the law in the face of backlash from health-care providers and the labour movement in this province, Ontario finally repealed it last week. Finally. Nurses are calling this a victory for all public-sector workers across Ontario, one that sends a clear message to the province that what remains of our public-sector health-care delivery must remain public.
How does Ontario's health-care system work? | Nerds on Health Care | TVO Today
“After a five-year fight, we have shown this government that attacking the rights of workers providing quality public-sector services will only result in strengthening the labour movement,” the ONA wrote in a media release.
“The bill caused immeasurable damage to nurses and health-care professionals and the patients, residents and clients who rely on our care. They have suffered and Ontario’s publicly funded and publicly delivered health-care system has been left on the brink of collapse.”
“It’s a sham, and it should have never passed in the first place,” a spokesperson for the Ontario Nurses’ Association recently commented.
The crisis that’s engulfed our health-care system here in Ontario is certainly still very real. Nurses are suffering. They’re exhausted. Many are thinking of getting out of the profession.
Like many Ontarians, I’m blessed to have a few wonderful nurses in my life whom I love and find myself in awe of. No one works harder or sacrifices more than they do. No one pours their heart and soul into their work while receiving less thanks for it. After soldiering through the pandemic (which is still happening, for the record), you’d think our provincial government might be inclined to show some gratitude.
Instead, nurses had to take to the streets to protest and buy ad space in newspapers to “tell the brutal truth” about their collapsing profession and the hostility they’ve been subjected to by the Ford government.
That government, it turns out, blew millions of taxpayer dollars and months of time fighting Ontario nurses in court in order to defend an unconstitutional bill that suppressed wages and threatened the health of our system and its workers.
Agenda segment, January 5, 2023: Saying thanks to Ontario nurses
Nurses deal with our tears and trauma — often in a chaotic environment, while working a wildly unpredictable schedule. Though they may appear unbreakable, nurses are bloody well tired, and it’s high time we started showing them the appreciation they deserve. Yes, the repeal of Bill 124 is a win for the public service and organized labour. But we can’t stop here: nurses deserve fair wages, safer work environments, better hours, and the support of a thriving organized labour movement.
So allow me to say good riddance to one of the worst pieces of legislation in Ontario history: rest uncomfortably, Bill 124.
Donate