Ontario's Health Minister Sylvia Jones said, "all options are on the table," including privatizing healthcare, in order to deal with staffing shortages at hospitals.."I'm saying there is innovation and opportunities here in Ontario, and we will explore those," Jones said in response to a reporter's question Wednesday.."Are we looking at options? Absolutely. There are jurisdictions in other parts of Canada, in the world, that have other opportunities that we're going to look at and all of those suggestions are being considered," she added..Several hospitals across Ontario have been dealing with severe staffing shortages for months. This lead many to close their ERs for hours, and in some cases, days..Jones said she has been speaking with hospital corporations across the Ontario in an effort to fix the problem. She said the government is considering changes to the health system, but added Ontario has always had a public healthcare system, "and we will continue to.".In response to Jones' comments, Interim NDP Leader Peter Tabuns said any health-care privatization "would be a disaster for Ontario.".In a statement on Wednesday, NDP Healthcare Critic France Gélinas said the party was "horrified" to hear privatization was being considered.."We are now deeply concerned the reason this Conservative government is refusing to act on the healthcare crisis is because they'd rather just privatize health care," Gélinas said. Advocates have been pleading with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to repeal public sector wage restraint legislation he introduced in 2019. They're claiming Bill 124 is harming efforts to recruit and retain nurses.When Ford was asked on Tuesday about staffing issues at hospitals, he refused to call it a crisis."If there was 5,000 nurses that could fly from the sky, we'd be hiring them tomorrow," Ford said.
