My name is Laura Hanson and I am a nursing policy analyst with the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO). RNAO is the professional organization representing more than 30, 000 registered nurses who practice in all roles and sectors across Ontario. We appreciate the opportunity to participate in these public consultations.

As a Budget Committee, you are facing a choice. Will City Council apply creative remedies to the task of building a healthy city? Or will you impose restrictions and cuts that will negatively impact the well being of all of Toronto’s residents and will, within certain communities, have devastating consequences?

RNAO is speaking here today because nurses are acutely aware of the critical link between social and environmental conditions and health. We work in schools, hospitals, offices, shelters, long term care facilities, on the streets and in patients’ homes. Nurses hear and see the struggles that people, especially those on social assistance and in low-paying and precarious jobs, face to get basic necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, child care, recreation services and transportation.

Good afternoon. My name is Rhonda Seidman-Carlson, and I am the President-elect of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO). With me today is Kim Jarvi, of RNAO’s Policy department. RNAO is the professional association for registered nurses who practise in all roles and sectors in Ontario. Our mandate is to advocate for healthy public policy and for the role of registered nurses in enhancing the health of Ontarians.

The 2011 Budget was a cautious budget, and RNAO greeted it with qualified approval. There was limited new spending and no new taxes. The resulting budget deficit was projected to drop to 2.5 per cent of GDP in the coming fiscal year, compared to 3.3 per cent and 2.7 per cent in the previous two years. In those years, the government had responded to the economic crisis by deficit spending in order to help avert a full-blown collapse. There was broad domestic and international consensus on the necessity of deficit spending under the circumstances and nurses supported the approach. Given that unemployment in Ontario and Canada remain stubbornly high in spite of some economic recovery we caution our provincial and federal governments to be careful to avoid tipping their economies back into recession by prematurely cutting deficits.