Ontario hospital nurses awarded 5.25 per cent in raises, but decry lack of staffing ratios

A nurse tends to a patient in the intensive care unit at the Bluewater Health Hospital in Sarnia, Ont., on Tuesday, January 25, 2022. The head of the Ontario Hospital Association says hospitals should not lose nurses and doctors to a new system of private clinics the government will be using to reduce the surgical backlog.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — An arbitrator has awarded Ontario’s hospital nurses pay increases of 5.25 per cent over two years, in a new contract their union calls disappointing.

The terms of the contract as set by the arbitrator for about 60,000 hospital nurses include the pay increase but do not include minimum staffing levels, as requested by the nurses during arbitration.

Ontario Nurses’ Association provincial president Erin Ariss says the arbitrator’s failure to include staffing ratios sends a message to nurses that they do not deserve the same safety in numbers as other front-line workers in dangerous professions.

ONA says it will be closely reviewing the decision and “carefully considering next steps.”

The hospitals had argued that the union’s staffing ratio proposals were rigid and unrealistic, and did not take into account care from other health professionals such as registered practical nurses.

The arbitrator said in the decision that there are already mechanisms in place for nurses to raise concerns about workload and appropriate staffing levels.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press