For Immediate Release
27 February, 2024
NDP Health Critic, Lela Evans (Torngat Mountains), stood in solidarity today with unions representing nurses across the province as they rallied on the steps of the Confederation Building demanding the Liberal government stop privatizing health care in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“While the Liberal government tries to reassure the public that they have a control on the crisis in health care they created, we are standing here today in solidarity with our local nurses because this government continues to ignore their concerns and refuses to prioritize retention in health care,” said Evans. “It was a slap in the face last week for nurses in this province to learn that millions of dollars are being siphoned out of this province into the pockets of for-profit travel nurse agencies who are close to the Liberal Party.
“The Liberals want to blame this on the pandemic, but if they were listening they would know that nurses in this province have been telling us for years that if the working conditions weren’t improved – we would be facing a nursing crisis. Still, when the pandemic hit our shores our health care workers held a broken system together going to work day in day out before we knew the full risks of the virus. Because our local nurses care about us.
“Local nurses are connected to this place, they have a vested interest in our communities. But in this province doing that work comes at a cost. With no work life balance nurses in this province have to choose between work and being present at important family milestones. They go to work day in day out facing violence in the workplace and it seems nobody in this government cares. We care, the NDP will always stand in solidarity with workers in this province.
“The government is trying to downplay the anger felt by nursing students who aren’t being offered full time positions or the retention bonuses being offered to those recruited from outside of the province. The Liberals want to blame nursing students for setting their expectations too high when we have heard from nursing students that they would gladly take a full time position - if only it was offered to them.
“We’re here to tell the Liberal government loud and clear - Our local nurses aren’t the problem, the employer is the problem. If we are going to get out of this crisis in health care, the government needs to do the hard work here at home and fix the system that they and decades of successive governments created by refusing to protect and strengthen public health care in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca