In October 2020, the Minister of Health issued a Directive (Minister’s Directive to Home and Community Care Support Services, Ontario Health, and Home and Community Care Health Service Providers: Personal Support Services Temporary Wage Enhancement in Response to COVID-19) to temporarily enhance Personal Support Services (PSS) wages to support a high-quality PSS workforce to meet Ontario’s demand for home and community-based services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The enhancement provided an hourly wage increase to eligible workers providing PSS in the home and community care sector. This included the wages of workers in all programs in which PSS are provided under the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994 and are funded by Ontario Health.
Further to these enhancements, this year the Ontario Government passed the Supporting Retention in Public Services Act, 2022 which allows a temporary pandemic wage increase for personal support workers (PSWs) and direct support workers (DSWs) to become permanent.
Update
On May 2, 2022, Ontario Health was notified by the Ministry of Health that the Directive was amended to provide a further extension from April 1, 2022 up to April 27, 2022. As a result, Ontario Health will provide funding to increase the wages of eligible home and community care PSS workers by $3 per plus up to $0.75 per hour (25%) for statutory benefits for the above timeframe. This 25% increase is an estimate and does not reflect an entitlement to any change in contract rates or funding for existing compensation and services. Please review the Directive for the General Mandatory Requirements and other pertinent details.
Additionally, the Ministry of Health notified Ontario Health that as part of the Personal Support Worker Permanent Compensation Enhancement Program under the Supporting Retention in Public Services Act, 2022, the Government of Ontario is making a permanent, targeted hourly compensation enhancement for eligible PSS workers. As such, funding will be provided to applicable Health Service Providers (HSPs) to permanently increase the wages of eligible PSS workers as of April 28, 2022.
Next Steps
In support of both the extension of the Directive to the end of April and the permanent targeted enhancement, Ontario Health regions are preparing letters for HSPs. These letters will be distributed by each region to their respective HSPs during the week of May 24th to 27th. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please reach out to Jeff Kwan, your Ontario Health regional VP, Performance, Accountability and Funding Allocation at:
jeffery.kwan@ontariohealth.ca.
