For us right now, it's the crisis in our long-term care and home care sectors. There's a lack of transparency of where public dollars are going to in these private agencies. Ms. Stewart will be able to talk about the research they've done in the private sector and in home care and long-term care, but for our nurses, it's the agencies. We're seeing nursing agencies popping up across the country. They're paying double or triple the salaries. Nurses are not working in their communities anymore, because they're too tired of the awful working conditions within our long-term care and acute care sectors. They just go to an agency. I mentioned that in my introductory comments.
I commit myself to an employer. They cannot work with me to improve my working conditions, and then have my co-workers just leave for an agency. That is opening the door for more privatization of our acute care sector, and that's where we're talking about our critical care nurses, where the specialization is extreme. With our emergency nurses, again, the specialization is extreme. Honestly, they're paid by us, the taxpayers, and now they're going to agencies.
I'll keep it at that. We have many studies on the negative effects of privatization in health care, such as an education that we need to keep the five principles of the Canada Health Act solid. It's the role of the federal government to protect them.