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Nurses in every province are seeing the steady expansion of health care privatization, a shift that is draining resources from the public system already struggling with severe staffing shortages and unsafe workloads. Instead of strengthening the system, the move toward for‑profit care only stretches nurses thinner and leaves patients with fewer accessible options for the care they need.
The consequences are clear: privatization creates a two‑tier system where those who can pay receive faster and more comprehensive services, while the public system is left underfunded, overburdened and unable to meet demand. This deepens inequities, accelerates burnout among nurses and undermines the foundational principle that health care in Canada should be based on need, not income. Nurses are experiencing the impacts of this every shift, in every province. The erosion of the public system threatens both patient safety and the stability of the profession.
Nurses nationwide are calling for governments to invest in and protect public health care. Canada needs a system where every patient has access to timely high‑quality care, and where nurses can work in safe well‑supported environments. Privatization is not a fix. Preserving and strengthening public health care is essential for patients, for nurses and for the future of Canada’s health care system.
Health care should be about patients, not profits. Privatization drains resources fromthe public health care system and leaves nurses and patients paying the price.”
Linda Silas,
President of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions
From coast to coast to coast, we acknowledge the ancestral andunceded territory of all the Inuit, Métis and First Nations Peoples that call this land home. The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is located on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People. As settlers and visitors, we feel it’s important to acknowledge the importance of these lands, which we each call home. We do this to reaffirm our commitment and responsibility to improve relationships between nations, to work towards healing the wounds of colonialism and to improve our own understanding of local Indigenous Peoples and their cultures
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) is Canada’s largest nurses’ organization, representing frontline unionized nurses and nursing students in every sector of health care – from home care and LTC to community and acute care – and advocating on key priorities to strengthen public health care across the country. We are proud to advocate for our members and promote the nursing profession on the national level, and we work tirelessly to protect the quality of health care for our patients and our universal public health care system.
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