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Ball disappointed that home care support workers left out of budget April 27, 2007 Dwight Ball, Opposition Health and Community Services Critic and MHA for the District of Humber Valley, says he is disappointed that this year?s election budget, while increasing spending by hundreds of millions of dollars, once again forgot the struggle of many home care support workers in the province. "Government is certainly aware of the low wages and increasing responsibilities of our home care support workers," said Mr. Ball. "Unfortunately, even though these concerns have been brought to the attention of government, there was nothing to address these issues. Instead, government decided these individuals and their efforts were worth no more than $8 an hour. "Everyone is aware that our health care system is evolving and increased responsibility is falling on our home care support workers. Government is saving money by encouraging shorter hospital stays, yet they are not re-investing these savings into the people who look after patients once they are discharged. With the increasing role of home care support workers, they should certainly be making significantly more than minimum wage. "As was demonstrated during the 2004 VON strike in Corner Brook, Premier Williams and the government can certainly intervene and provide subsidies to increase wages. It was certainly unfortunate that there was no block funding put in place to help everyone in the home support industry. While additional health care responsibilities are falling directly to these people, government has once again decided to ignore this issue. I fear this attitude will add to the significant home care worker shortage, as less stressful jobs will begin paying more."
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