Health committee  Thank you very much. My name is Miranda Ferrier. I am a personal support worker. I have worked in long-term care and home care settings in Ontario for many years as a front-line personal support worker. I'm also the founder and president of the Canadian Support Workers Associati

Health committee  They are called something different in every province across Canada. A support worker is also called a health care aide, personal support worker, personal care attendant, personal care aide. The list goes on. We're called something different everywhere. We work in the front line

Health committee  I was just going to say that in home care for PSWs currently, in different provinces they're not allowed to carry their cellphone with them on their person into the home. They say that if there's an issue, the support worker has to then use the client's phone in order to call in

Health committee  Absolutely. We just started a campaign through the association in Ontario for a resident-to-personal support worker ratio. What we're seeing across the board is one for 15, one for 20, one for 35 to 40 in the overnights. It's a scary situation. We've heard a lot of talk throu

Health committee  In the province of Ontario, what we hear from members—and also in our New Brunswick chapter and out in Alberta and British Columbia—is that the full-time work is what they really desire. They always start the sentence with “I get no respect. I have no recognition. Nobody listens

Health committee  I think that in a lot of cases there were complaints from clients that personal support workers or support workers were on their cellphones while they were doing their jobs. I guess employers were trying to do their due diligence by saying they couldn't have their cellphones on t

Health committee  Do you know what? We're the only association in all of Canada for support workers. We have guesstimates; that's the best we can do. In Ontario alone, we've guesstimated there are approximately 135,000 personal support workers with only 52,000 working now. If you look at the mass

Health committee  I have lots of ideas. I actually worked in a lockdown unit in a long-term care facility—I'm specialized in mental health and dementia—and I had my nose broken by an 80-pound old lady, who threw me across the room. I was alone on an overnight shift, and I was one worker with 32 r

Health committee  Absolutely. I think it would actually attract more people to the field.

Health committee  Thank you.

Human Resources committee  Good afternoon and thank you very much for having me here today. As was just said, I'm Miranda Ferrier. I'm the CEO of the Canadian Support Workers Association. We represent over 67,000 personal support workers and support workers, which have different names in almost every prov

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. Thank you very much MP Falk. It's nice to see you. Personal support workers across our nation are called something different in almost every single province. In Nova Scotia they're referred to as continuing care assistants. In New Brunswick they're PSWs and health ca

Human Resources committee  No, not at all.

Human Resources committee  I would have to agree with Laura. Laura and I are friends outside of this as well, so we see things eye to eye on a lot of different issues, which is great. I would agree about having the individual envelopes. I think one of the ways we really have to look at this from the feder

Human Resources committee  I was just going to say yes.