Policy library

All Financial Outcomes (from Q1, 2 & 3)

Q3: What is the extent and nature of the evidence on enhanced RN scope of practice and its influence on patient/clinical, nurse/organizational and financial health outcomes?

Combined Graphs [Outcomes associated with question 1 (RN staffing), question 2 (RN care), and question 3 (Enhanced RN scope of practice) have been combined]

Q2: What is the extent and nature of the evidence examining RN care or RN-led health initiatives, including but not limited to comparisons of care provided by other HCPs, and their influence on patient/clinical, nurse/organizational and financial health outcomes?

Q2: What is the extent and nature of the evidence examining RN care or RN-led health initiatives, including but not limited to comparisons of care provided by other HCPs, and their influence on patient/clinical, nurse/organizational and financial health outcomes?

Q2: What is the extent and nature of the evidence examining RN care or RN-led health initiatives, including but not limited to comparisons of care provided by other HCPs, and their influence on patient/clinical, nurse/organizational and financial health outcomes?

Q1: What is the extent and nature of the evidence examining RN staffing models and their influence on patient/clinical, nurse/organizational and financial health outcomes?

What is the extent and nature of the evidence examining RN staffing models and their influence on patient/clinical, nurse/organizational and financial health outcomes?

Private share of health expenditures (%): Ontario vs. rest of Canada

Revenues Relative to GDP (%)

Program Expenses Per Capita

There is a clear and persistent imbalance between revenue and expenditures, which is not sustainable in the long run. The question is whether the solution should involve a reduction in spending or an increase in revenue, or a combination of the two, or a movement in the same direction with one dominating. For example, one could increase expenditures sustainably so long as revenues rose sufficiently quickly to yield a net reduction in the deficit. A comparison of Ontario with other provinces and territories reveals that Ontario is an outlier, consistently having the lowest or second lowest expenditures as a share of GDP. Notably, the only province that has lower program expenditure/GDP ratios are Alberta and Saskatchewan, and those lower ratios are entirely due to those provinces having a much higher per capita GDP than Ontario – about 32% higher for Alberta and about 15% higher for Saskatchewan. Alberta and Saskatchewan spend more per capita on programs than Ontario, as the next graph below shows.

The reason for the jump in the debt/GDP ratio is the large and increasing deficits. The deficits are projected to decline for many jurisdictions in 2021-22, but they remain large and as a consequence, the debt/GDP ratio (above) was projected to increase in 2021-22 in spite of the drop in the deficits.

Recent data from RBC and Statistics Canada confirm a marked trend towards rising provincial and federal deficits. There was a sharp projected jump in the debt/GDP ratio for 2020-21, with the ratio projected to deteriorate in a number of provinces, including Ontario. Ontario leads all provinces and territories in debt/GDP by a large margin, with the exception of Newfoundland. Figures from 2020-21 onwards (bolded) are projected.

Ontario’s 2021 budget confirmed a jump in the program spending and in deficits for 2020-21, the year of the pandemic, although spending and deficits are projected to decline in 2021-22. Over the period 2011-12 to 2021-22, total spending (program spending plus interest payments) has always exceeded revenues, so there has always a deficit. In many years, program spending alone exceeded revenues.

Age-Adjusted Per Capita Health Spending

Health as a percentage of program spending

Smoking Rates in Ontario 2017-2018

Weekly COVID-19 Deaths Among Ontario Long-Term Care Residents

Prevalence of dementia and select mental health symptoms contributing to mental health acuity in long-term care home residents in 2018-2019

Tuberculosis rates and cases

Rate of serious complications in the last year among people living with diabetes, in Ontario, by fiscal year

LTC COVID-19 Active Cases in Ontario

Ontario RN Work Status

Gonorrhea & Chlamydia cases for all ages, for all sexes, in Ontario