The following is an open letter from Le Centre de santé communautaire de l’Estrie.
Ontario’s community health sector is the backbone of healthcare for millions of people across the province. From primary care to mental health and addiction support, home care, and long-term care, the sector ensures that Ontarians receive the right type of care in the right setting. This helps keep people healthy, out of hospitals, and supported in their communities.
This proactive approach allows people to stay healthy for longer by enabling faster access to diagnosis and treatment, reducing pressure on hospital emergency departments and walk-in clinics. But despite its crucial role, the sector is facing a growing crisis that threatens the care Ontarians rely on, especially in the rural regions of Eastern Ontario.
The Ontario government has committed $546 million over three years to improve access to primary care. This investment will enable around 600,000 people to receive primary care through the expansion and establishment of new interprofessional care teams across the province. Despite this promising development for Ontario’s healthcare system, current community health workers in Ontario are not compensated equitably compared to their colleagues in other healthcare settings, such as hospitals and schools.
For Us. For You., a new campaign, launched by ten provincial associations representing Ontario’s community health sector is raising awareness of a staggering wage gap. Community health workers — over 200,000 nurses, personal support workers, social workers, and other workers from across the province — are paid significantly less than their peers doing similar work in hospitals and schools, despite the challenging work they do.
The wage gap is now over $2 billion, and the consequences are dire. Every day, workers are leaving their jobs in the community health sector, making it harder for patients to access the care they need.
For the Centre de santé communautaire de l’Estrie (CSCE), these wage disparities add to the challenge of recruiting and retaining qualified francophone staff. Several employees have left our organization to work in hospitals, where salaries are competitive and regularly adjusted to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of living.
The disproportionate wage gap between hospitals and community settings creates a stark inequity within the healthcare system. This inequity currently adds additional pressure to Ontario’s health system, which is already experiencing significant difficulties. As this wage gap grows, the CSCE is facing increasing challenges in providing timely access to healthcare.
As a healthcare leader in Eastern Ontario, the CSCE continues to offer high-quality health services in rural settings while actively participating in local and regional initiatives to improve the well-being and health of our communities. If no concrete action is taken soon to make our staff’s salaries, and those in the community sector in general, more competitive and equitable, the CSCE risks sinking further into this crisis and may no longer be able to fulfill its role in the local healthcare system fully.
Community health workers are passionate about the work they do. They care deeply for their patients and clients. But the wages paid are simply not enough to keep up with the cost of living, despite doing the same or similar jobs to their colleagues in other parts of the healthcare system.
The community health sector serves some of Ontario’s most vulnerable populations—seniors, people with disabilities, those with chronic health conditions, individuals with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, those living in rural areas or under the poverty line, and those facing barriers to accessing care. These individuals depend on this workforce to help them manage their health, live independently, and receive the right care in the right place.
The Ontario government needs to take immediate and decisive action to close the wage gap and support the future of community healthcare—and patients—in the province. Without action, we will see services cut, wait times grow longer, and even more overcrowding in our emergency departments and hospitals.
Closing the wage gap means a stronger, more resilient community health sector—one that will continue to be there for us all, now and in the future.
François Bazinet, Chair of the Board of the CSCE
Marc Bisson, Executive Director of the CSCE
