As we celebrate Nursing Week in Ontario, I’d like to take a moment to thank the hard-working nurses of Ottawa West–Nepean and all across Ontario, including the amazing nurses of ONA Local 83 at the Ottawa Hospital, Local 84 at the Queensway Carleton Hospital and the wonderful RPNs of CUPE 4000 and CUPE 2875. Their dedication and unwavering commitment to patient care has supported so many of us through so many difficult, challenging, heartbreaking and life-affirming moments of the past few years, and they have done all of this incredible work in spite of the very challenging conditions they’ve had to work in and the serious disrespect with which they have been treated by this government.

A sincere and heartfelt thank you for all of the work that you do and keep on doing.

Now it’s time for us to have your back. It’s time for the government to negotiate a fair contract, to stop fighting the court’s decision on Bill 124. It’s time to stop the privatization agenda that is pulling nurses out of the public health care system, leaving public hospitals short-staffed and contributing to longer wait times and frustrated patients. It’s time to stop the temp agency insanity that puts profits in the pockets of investors while treating nurses on the public payroll unfairly. It’s time for the government to show nurses the respect you so deserve so that you can keep on doing the job you love.

Nursing shortages continue to plague Ottawa hospitals. The Queensway Carleton Hospital in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean has had to close ICU beds due to lack of nurses.

Nurses without specialized experience are being assigned to work serious cases in the ICU or trauma cases in the ER. In at least one case, a nurse with only a few months’ experience was put in charge of an entire unit overnight, by herself. Speaker, this is unsustainable and risky. Why is the Premier refusing to repeal Bill 124 and address nursing shortages?

Recently, I met with the nurses of ONA Local 84 who work at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. They are burnt-out and frequently left in tears over assignments that they do not feel qualified to take on.

There are nurses who are quitting and working minimum wage jobs in retail because at least it doesn’t have the stress of nursing.

Will the Premier finally listen to nurses, address working conditions, and repeal Bill 124?

Beds don’t equal surgeries, Speaker. A bed without a nurse is just furniture.

At the Ottawa Hospital, we’re seeing the many serious consequences of not having enough nurses. Patients are waiting days to be admitted even though beds are available because there’s no nurse to staff the bed. Surgeries are being cancelled even as patients are entering the operating room because there’s no nurse. And recently, a patient who showed up for chemo was sent home without it because there was no nurse to administer it.

Will the government act swiftly to fill these nursing shortages so that every patient in Ontario gets the care they need?

The Ottawa Hospital is short more than 500 nurses, and this government’s actions to date are a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the crisis. There are nurses in Ottawa who are working 16-hour shifts, 12 out of 14 days, just to fill nursing shortages. Just imagine trying to provide good care while working that many hours, not to mention the risk of mistakes. No wonder nurses are leaving the profession.

Will the government repeal Bill 124 and address working conditions so that we keep nurses instead of driving them away?

Last week, I had the chance to sit down with nurses from ONA Local 83 and they told me that every day they go to work feeling scared. They wonder, who will I not get to today, and what will the consequences be? It is only a matter of time until the consequences for someone are deadly. This is an unfair burden to put on our hard-working health care heroes and terrifying to patients across Ontario.

Will this government finally listen to nurses and implement the solutions they are calling for, starting with repeal of Bill 124?