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Healthcare workers hold protest outside Sylvia Jones’ office on Broadway
December 11, 2025 · 1 Comments
By Joshua Drakes
The picket, designed to be informational and raise awareness of ongoing disputes with the North York Family Health Team (NYFHT), ran from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 3.
The workers are represented by the Ontario Nurses Association, which currently represents more than 68,000 registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, who provide care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and public health.
Rita Ha, the bargaining unit president for the workers picketing, said that while they are also picketing for fair wages, they are also striking over what they describe as questionable management by the NYFHT board.
“We are fighting for fair wages, but also accountability from our board of directors and Ontario Health,” she said. “The government provided recruitment, retention pay for primary care workers, which was supposed to go towards increased wages and some level increase in compensation. But the North York Family Health Team has decided to use that money, that funding, to pay off a budget deficit. We haven’t seen a single cent of it.”
The workers from NYFHT, which include nurses, pharmacists, social workers and more, support some 95,000-plus patients at all stages of life with comprehensive medical care, from mental and physical health to chronic disease management.
They are asking Sylvia Jones, MPP for Dufferin-Caledon and Ontario’s Minister of Health, to use her powers to ensure that the funding is used responsibly and for the right purposes for which it was provided.
Ha said that their requests have been denied.
“The question has been asked of her in the house and she doesn’t want to get involved, saying that it’s a labour dispute,” she said. “She doesn’t want to oversee it, they don’t want to get involved, but this is taxpayer money that was supposed to be used for recruitment and retention.”
The ONA and the workers at the NYFHT argue that Minister Jones has a responsibility to get involved and hold the board of directors to account, with Ha claiming that redirecting this money was a loophole that was exploited and should be closed.
She directly called on Jones to act.
“We want her to use her power, use her oversight,” Ha said. “She has to be accountable for how taxpayer money is used, how this money is being used. Help us end this strike. We need her to tell Ontario Health, tell our board to end this strike, to do what she needs to do.”
The newspaper reached out to Health Minister Jones’ office for comments, but the office would not comment on the situation beyond insisting that this remains an issue between the union and the employer.
As far as Ontario is concerned, the ONA and NYFHT need to work out their disagreements at the table and come to a decision that everyone is happy with.
“The Ministry of Health is not involved in bargaining efforts with the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) and the North York Family Health Team,” said Ema Popovic, spokesperson for the Minister of Health. “We encourage both parties to stay at the table and work toward a fair and sustainable agreement that supports patients and staff.”
Readers Comments (1)
The Minister of Health doesn’t want to investigate where public tax dollars earmarked for Healthcare Workers’ wages went?
Isn’t that kind of her job? And if not the Minister of Health then who?
Where does the buck stop?
Clearly it’s not just a labor dispute if they are saying our tax dollars are going to pay for healthcare workers and instead the money could be going to lining someone else’s pockets.
No transparency. No accountability.
And I can’t believe they’re just letting nurses, pharmacists, and healthcare workers continue to picket this time of year in negative 20 degree weather.
Unconscionable.