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A Southwestern Ontario community health centre is raising concerns over wage disparity between workers in its sector versus other branches of the health care system.
A letter addressed to Ontario’s agriculture minister, Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Rob Flack, by West Elgin Community Health Centre officials urges Queen’s Park to close the wage gap between those who work at community health facilities and people employed in better-paid parts of health care.
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“The amount needed to close the wage gap provincewide is $2 billion, the same amount needed to put beer and wine in our corner stores,” reads the letter written by the health centre’s board chair, Dawn Maziak. “That fact was not lost on many who signed the petition.”
Located in West Elgin – a municipality in Elgin County, about 65 kilometres southwest of London – the facility is the only interdisciplinary primary health care provider in the western part of the county, the letter states. The community health care model saves the province money “by keeping people healthy” and “lessening the burden on emergency departments and hospitals,” it reads.
Available for signatures at several Elgin County locations, a petition that’s drawn nearly 800 supporters elicited a reaction of “shock, disbelief and anger” from some signatories after they were presented details regarding staff wages, Maziak wrote.
Maziak cited some key figures:
- Most staff have only received a 1 per cent pay raise since 2019 while inflation has been 16.77 per cent over the same period.
- Two decade-long mental health counsellors accepted jobs elsewhere late last year, and although both wanted to stay, they found jobs in cities they lived in with 30 per cent pay increases.
- West Elgin Community Health Centre’s nurses are paid $15 less an hour than those in London or Chatham doing the same work, a wage disparity amounting to $28,000 per year.
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“We are not seeking a token increase in funding but an aggressive commitment to close the wage gap and maintain this essential service that provides health care to rural and remote constituents as well as the underprivileged in our urban centres,” the letter read.
As well as being located in a rural area where many farmers reside, economic growth in the area is “dependent on viable health care,” Maziak wrote.
Maziak noted that employment generated by Amazon’s distribution centre near St. Thomas, and Volkswagen’s massive electric vehicle battery plant – scheduled to open in 2027 and employ 3,000 – were anticipated to add “50,000 spin-off jobs (and) rural municipalities in the area expect to benefit.”
“West Elgin is a 30-minute commute from these plants but will be at a disadvantage if we cannot offer health care,” wrote Maziak.
In a statement, Flack said he values the organization’s work but noted community health centres are “independent employers and are responsible for their own staff compensation packages.”
Ontario health minister Sylvia Jones’s office issued a similar statement that they’re “independent employers, responsible for their own staffing arrangements, including staff compensation.” The government, the statement noted, is putting another $20 million atop the $110 million it’s already invested in “interprofessional primary care” across Ontario.
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada
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