Bridging the Gap: Strengthening Ontario's Home and Community Services

OCSA's 2024 Pre-Budget Recommendations

There is a critical need to improve home care and community support services across the province. Almost universally, elderly Ontarians and those with disabilities prefer to receive care in their own homes and communities and want to live and age there for as long as possible.

What is the Pre-Budget Consultation Process?

Each year, in advance of the release of the provincial budget in the spring, government solicits feedback from the general public, business owners, and communities about what they would like to see prioritized in the budget. This page provides the highlights from OCSA's 2024 Pre-Budget consultation submission, which summarizes for government the urgent need for more funding for Ontario’s home and community care sector.



Home and community care services cannot continue to support existing clients and meet the growing demand with existing funding levels, and the impacts are being felt by both organizations and clients. This why we must advocate to all MPPs for additional sector investment in the 2024 Budget.

Sector Challenges

If we do not take urgent action to secure an ample home care and community support workforce, many of Ontario’s most vulnerable citizens will face a shortage of services and be forced to live and age somewhere they would rather not be, nor is the most appropriate place for them.


We have identified 3 key sector challenges which have informed our recommendation (Click to learn more):

Our Recommendations

In Budget 2024, OCSA recommends that the province invest $533 million to build a sustainable home and community care sector. In addition to this investment in 2024, the province should commit to investing an additional $519 million between 2025 and 2029 to eliminate the wage and compensation gap between home and community care and other health sectors.

In 2024, the $533 million investment should be structured as follows:

Invest $290 million to increase service providers’ operational budgets by 3% and service volumes by 3% this year to meet growing community need and to build a comprehensive basket of home and community care services in each community across the province.

Invest up to $77 million for retroactive pay increases to prevent wage disparities from worsening as a result of Bill 124 arbitration awards and $116 million in increases in 2024 to keep pace with increases in other sectors and start closing the gap between the sectors.

Address the previous shortfall in the province’s PSW Wage Enhancement funding by applying the permanent $3 an hour PSW wage increase to all hours of work not just direct care hours. This would cost an estimated $50 million.

Sector Challenge: Wage and Compensation Gap

The persistent wage gap between the home and community care sector and other health sectors poses a significant challenge in recruiting and retaining qualified professionals. Skilled professionals who chose to work in this sector, will earn considerably less than their peers in other healthcare domains. 


This wage disparity not only undervalues the essential work that home and community care PSWs perform, but also stifles the sector from attracting and retaining the talent it needs.


Click here to read the Ontario Community Health Sector's 2024-25 pre-budget submission which goes into greater detail about the wage inequity across Ontario's healthcare system.

Sector Challenge: Growing Need for Home and Community Care

The persistent wage gap between the home and community care sector and other health sectors poses a significant challenge in recruiting and retaining qualified professionals. Skilled professionals, who chose to work in this sector, will earn considerably less than their peers in other healthcare domains. 

Sector Challenge: High Acuity Care in Homes and Communities

The perception that providing care in the community is less demanding than in institutional settings is simply incorrect. Over the past decade, there has been a notable increase in the acuity level of clients in the community.


We have more individuals returning home and living in community with higher medical needs making it imperative that we provide the appropriate compensation and operation support our health professionals in home and community care need.

With Ontario’s 80+ population projected to more than double by 2040, the government needs to take urgent action to ensure that the home and community care sector is adequately funded and resourced to provide Ontarians with healthcare where and how they prefer to receive it – at home and in their communities, delivered by trained professionals.

Download OCSA 2024 Pre-Budget Consultation Submission

How to Get Involved

Send a letter or email to your MPP

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We support @OCSAtweets recommendations to @ONGov to invest $533 million in 2024 so that not-for-profit service providers can continue to provide critical #homecare and #communitysupport services to +1M vulnerable Ontarians. www.ocsa.on.ca/2024-pre-budget-recommendations

 

#bridgethegap #ONhealth 


We support @OCSAtweets recommendations to @ONGov to invest $533 million into the #homecare and #communitysupport sector in 2024 so that not-for-profit service providers can pay their staff fairly for their critically important work. www.ocsa.on.ca/2024-pre-budget-recommendations

 

#bridgethegap #ONhealth 

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