Good morning:

My name is Kim Jarvi and I am the acting director of nursing and health policy with the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), the professional association representing registered nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students in Ontario.

RNAO always presents at pre-budget hearings because the budget makes the most important decisions affecting health and the health system. That, in turn, affects the places where nurses work and their ability to positively influence health outcomes. Nurses urge the government to spend the right amount of money and to spend it in the right areas. Our experience tells us to take an upstream approach and invest in keeping people well, so we can avoid the much larger costs of dealing with consequences – the increased morbidity and mortality, human suffering, lost productivity, the costs of patching people up when they suffer illness and injury. If the government implemented a health-in-all-policies approach, we would not only have a healthier society, but also a healthier economy and a healthier budget balance.

Good afternoon. My name is Andrea Baumann and I am a registered nurse and a policy analyst for the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO). We are the professional association representing registered nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students in Ontario. With me today is Cindy Baker-Barill, a public health nurse, and past-president of the Community Health Nurses' Initiatives Group – an interest group of RNAO. Our association and its members advocate for healthy public policy, and aim to influence decisions that affect nurses and the public we serve.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee to address dementia in Canada. Today I am here representing the Canadian Gerontological Nursing Association and the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. The Canadian Gerontological Nursing Association (CGNA) is the national organization representing gerontological nurses and promotes gerontological nursing practice across national and international boundaries. The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) is the professional association representing registered nurses (RN), nurse practitioners (NP) and nursing students in Ontario.

Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Doris Grinspun and I am Chief Executive Officer of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, or as it is best known: RNAO.

We thank you for the opportunity to be here today, representing Ontario’s registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing students to speak in staunch support of supervised injection services (SIS). This issue is tremendously important to us as health professionals, community members, family members, and friends of loved ones whose lives have been lost or are at risk because of substance use and addiction. Implementing SIS is a pragmatic and evidence-based policy that will improve health outcomes, prevent needless deaths, and contribute to safer communities.