TORONTO, ON – Dr. Adil Shamji, MPP for Don Valley East and Ontario Liberal Health critic, has released the following statement:
“Today’s announcement assumes there is a surplus of licensed healthcare workers across Canada that are available to work in Ontario, while also failing to recognize that Doug Ford’s wage-capping Bill 124 has made our province one of the least desirable places to work in Canada as a healthcare professional.
“The government’s proposal also fails to provide any details as to who will verify whether workers are safe to practice, which regulatory body will supervise their clinical care, and what standards these workers will be held to in Ontario. There is also a highly worrisome provision that would allow healthcare workers to operate outside of their normal scope of practice, with no explanation of what that means for patients.
“This Conservative government likes to make big promises when it comes to healthcare, but they have taken no action to make working conditions better for the healthcare workers we already have, and has failed to take important steps like accelerating the credentialling of foreign-trained doctors.”