Good afternoon.
I am a primary health care nurse practitioner, and I'm here today representing the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario as a member of the board of directors.
We appreciate having the opportunity to participate in these proceedings. Ontario's 110,000 registered nurses know that moving towards a poverty-free Canada is the best way to build a healthier, more inclusive, and more vibrant Canada. Nurses work on the front lines—in hospitals, community clinics, homes, and with those who have no homes. Nurses have a finger on the pulse of society at its most vulnerable.
We often are the first to see the effects of a downturn in the economy. We see the thousands of laid-off women and men for whom the loss of a job represents the loss of drug benefits and other health care benefits, as well as their livelihoods. We witness first-hand those whose retirement savings are evaporating, whose housing values are dropping, and whose security of housing has been lost. People seeking assistance from a food bank for the first time are joining those who have long experienced hunger because of low-paying, precarious jobs or dangerously low social assistance rates. Taking action on poverty is literally a matter of life and death. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that those who live in poverty and are socially excluded experience a greater burden of disease and die earlier than those who have better access to economic, social, and political resources.
For the last 28 years, I've worked with vulnerable populations, mostly through community health centres, but also in northern communities with first nations people. I'll give you a couple of scenarios.
One of my clients, Ella, finds that her health, well-being, dignity, and rights are compromised by the constant stress of paying rent and finding enough left over from her minimum-wage job for food and other essentials. Ella feeds her kids first and often goes hungry herself. She used to worry that the food from the food bank wasn't nutritious, but now she's worried that there might not be enough food in the food bank each month when she goes. It took Ella years to hire a regular health care provider. As she went from practitioner to practitioner, physicians would find that she had a history of mental illness and would deny her access to care. Ella was told, for example, that her rash and itching were all in her mind, but when I did a home visit, I found that her excoriated skin was due to bedbugs, which are prevalent in Toronto.
You'll hear a lot as you listen to people talk about the cycle of poverty, and you'll wonder whether people ever really get out of poverty and find their way. I'll just tell you a bit about myself.
I grew up in a family of four children, and my mother raised us on her own after my father died. We moved 13 times before I was three. I speak to the need for a national affordable housing plan when I tell you how important stable housing became to our family. When my father died, my mother was able to access welfare, despite the fact that she owned her own house. This was essential to our family's well-being. We were able to have stable housing and be part of a community. When my mother was able to go back to work part-time, our family was still able to access dental benefits and medication coverage, despite the fact that she had begun working. My siblings and I also had access to OSAP grants, and we were therefore able to access post-secondary education, which allowed us to become meaningfully and gainfully employed members of society. I can tell you that all four of us now work, own our own homes, and take care of our mother.
Improving children's access to health and well-being will require leadership and collaboration from all three levels of government. To address poverty and health inequities that arise from deprivation and social exclusion, we urge you to develop a national poverty strategy. We also invite you to join nurses on the streets of Toronto, where we would be happy to host you and take you to hear more stories from the people of Toronto.
Thank you.