A policy analysis of Bill-124 and the nursing shortage

Abstract

Nurses comprise the largest portion of the healthcare workforce across Canada, yet there have been ongoing shortages for the last decade. This shortage has been pronounced with the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare spending has also been increasing steadily in Canada. The Canadian provincial governments, such as Ontario, see this as an opportunity to stabilize its fiscal healthcare spending by implementing a policy to freeze nurses’ wages. The focus of this policy analysis is to address the question: how did Bill-124 reach the Ontario government’s agenda in the midst of a nursing shortage? Why was this specific policy action successful in being implemented as a possible solution to remediate provincial debt burden? The authors will be using the Kingdon’s framework to help analyze this policy. They will also articulate the impacts of such government decisions; and provide recommendations with strategies on how to tackle the challenge.