My hope “on the other side” of this pandemic: Part 1

The most important story I hope lives on in the consciousness of our society after this pandemic is over, and in terms of our attitudes toward one another, is the value of front-line/essential workers.

The degree of professionalism that our local staff - at grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware stores, municipal offices, medical offices, the agricultural sector, and Personal Support Workers (PSWs) in long-term care homes/retirement residences - continues to demonstrate, has not only been central to the success of how Ontario has handled this pandemic but encourages us to consider how we value these lines of work.

Can you imagine what the end of March would have been like if grocery stores had shut down because none of the employees had the courage to show up to fill their shifts? Instead, at the most crucial moment of the millennium to date, men, women and high school-aged employees collectively stared uncertainty in the face and stood-up and showed up.

Eventually, our province decided to value them by giving them top-ups to their hourly wages in order to express our appreciation. But will we continue to value them when we’re on the other side of this pandemic? I not only hope that is the case, but I am challenging us to consider the fundamentally human act of making such a choice, not only in being reliable to their fellow citizens, but in terms of the essential nature of being human.

We have seen the travesty in long-term care homes across Quebec and Ontario and weighed that against the success stories that continue to occur in the sector caring for our elderly citizens. Once the pandemic ends, will these PSWs, whom our province has deemed heroes, continue to receive salaries that enable them to feed their families without the need of working two or three other jobs at other long-term/retirement homes?

Without government intervention, will the profit-oriented corporations running these institutions continue to provide sustainable salaries for these heroes? Perhaps this pandemic forces us to ask how these corporations attain their licenses to care for our elderly citizens while paying their front-line workers such low wages; moreover, should governments always top-up salaries for the employees of corporations?

A distinction should be noted. Long-term care homes, which are regulated by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, pay their PSWs higher salaries than those working for the corporations operating retirement residences. The PSWs in these retirement centres are often not paid enough for the work we currently value as a society.

Should the families of seniors retiring to these centres be willing to pay more? Is it purely market driven? Shall we create better payment structures for PSWs in retirement homes by tying our government subsidies to robust and adequate wages so that these facilities are not chronically short of staff and workers are not forced to work at multiple facilities simply to feed their own families?

Our reactions to the deadly outcomes during this pandemic have inspired us to question a purely market-driven approach! It is a question to ask our government leaders at the next election.

Dropping minimum wage seems to have been something that many Ontarians wanted in the last provincial election. Do we think differently now? Now that we have had the ability to stock up and get groceries and supplies, now that we appreciate the importance of farms continuing to operate and providing us with a healthy food supply, do we value their labour more? What is the solution?

May the dignity of our workforce give us a reason to ask how we value one another in society and to respect one another. The lasting issues from this pandemic should not be whether privileged members of society must have access to their secondary residences or whether we should be legislated to self-isolate. Instead, it should be how we value each other and what it means to be truly human; our essence to show up.