‘We’ve never seen a situation like this before’: Ontario health-care system at breaking point, nurses say

A stock photo of a tired health-care worker. “Morale is at an all-time low," says a representative for the Ottawa region of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. Photo by PeopleImages /Getty Images/iStockphoto

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Every year, nurses, nurse practitioners and politicians gather for conversation over coffee and breakfast. This year’s “Breakfast with Politicians” was different.

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“Morale is at an all-time low,” said Tracy Saldivia-Oda, a communications representative for the Ottawa region of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.

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“It’s at the height of tension, and we’re in very serious disagreements. Hundreds of nurses in the Ottawa area were just laid off,” she said.

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The tension she’s referring to is, in part, between registered nurses and the Ontario government, which continues to change funding for hospitals, resulting in workforce cuts.

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In April, The Ottawa Hospital announced it would cut about 400 workers. Most of them would be nurses.

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“If anyone says there are lots of nursing jobs in Ottawa — there are not,” Saldivia-Oda said.

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Without good staffing ratios, says the Ontario Nurses’ Association, Canada’s largest nurse union, there will be even longer wait times, possibly life-threatening delays and unreasonable workloads. While staffing ratios vary and are often not achieved in practice, the 2024 Patient‑to‑Nurse Ratios for Hospitals Act says a 1-to-1 staff-to-patient ratio is ideal within critical care, for example.

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At Friday morning’s event at Oat Couture cafe on Gladstone Avenue, ONA representatives handed out flyers to local health-care workers and their supporters outlining the consequences of the recent cuts.

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The hot topics of the morning also included the reduction of Ontario Student Assistance Program funding, low wages for nurses working in community health care as opposed to hospitals, changes to the Canada Health Act, difficulties in navigating the health-care system and violence towards nurses in hospitals.

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In the 1980s, the provincial government made similar changes, but back then students had OSAP to rely on, Saldivia-Oda said, adding that Ontario’s health-care system has never before seen a situation like the one it sees now.

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Earlier this year, the province cut OSAP grants from a maximum of 85 per cent to 25 per cent and encouraged students to opt for “jobs of the future” — among those suggested was health care.

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Despite that encouragement, the prospect of increased debt complicates the future for students.

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On May 15, the Canadian Union of Public Employees released a Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives report highlighting these overwhelming pressures.

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The report strongly recommended that the provincial government implement an aggressive plan to address the hospital funding and capacity crises instead of laying off staff.

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In the report, Andrew Longhurst, senior researcher at the CCPA, called it a toxic situation that undermined the goal of offering timely access to care for patients.

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Andrew Longhurst, senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says Ontario is seeing “probably the most serious crisis of hospital funding and health-care funding, at a time of significant demographic shifts. Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star

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Longhurst confirmed that hospital admission wait times “increased 30 per cent over five years as 90 per cent of patients waited 43.7 hours in 2024-25.”