Ontario Nurses' Association Releases New Research Showing Public Health Care and Education Cuts Will Bring Falling Economic Growth

TORONTO, Oct. 11, 2012 /CNW/ - As the province continues down the road of decreased public spending in health care and other public services through initiatives such as imposed wage freezes, forced pension erosion as well as sweeping labour law reform, the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) is releasing a new research paper showing the wealth-creating role of public spending on health, education and social services in overall economic production.

Easy to Take for Granted: The role of the public sector and carework in wealth creation shows that the value of economic output generated through every dollar spent on public health care, education and social services is considerably higher than each private investment dollar.

"Using quantitative as well as qualitative data, our economist Salimah Valiani's research demonstrates that what the current focus on public-sector cuts actually means is reduced economic growth in the years to come," notes ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN. "Dr. Valiani demonstrates that Ontario needs to shift from a framework of 'economic efficiency' to one of 'social efficiency' for health care reform. Market efficiency results in short-term financial savings but also results in long-term costs for careworkers, the most vulnerable and negatively impacts economic growth as a whole."

Haslam-Stroud says that, "remembering cuts to health care in the 1990s, our research and experience tell us that cuts to public health care are a false economy. We have to organize public health care and other public services so they are the most beneficial to recipients and providers. Contracting outside 'experts' who know nothing about front-line service delivery settings will inevitably leave Ontarians with poorer health and an increasing reliance on patients' families and friends, to the detriment of everyone."

The research paper concludes with recommendations for health care and fiscal reform. "In the current environment of increasing inequality and falling economic growth around the world, Ontario needs a combination of economic and human development in order to regenerate the economy and the population," says Haslam-Stroud. The paper is available on ONA's website (http://www.ona.org/documents/File/politicalaction/ONA_EasyToTakeForGranted_20121011.pdf).

ONA is the union representing 59,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals as well as more than 13,000 nursing student affiliates providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.

SOURCE: Ontario Nurses' Association

Ontario Nurses' Association

Sheree Bond
[phone], ext. 2430/cell: [phone]/[email protected]

Ruth Featherstone
[phone], ext. 2267/[email protected]

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