Restoring Ontario’s beleaguered health-care system to adequacy is a gargantuan challenge, but the first step is being honest about the size of the problem. That’s something the Doug Ford government has consistently failed to do.

It’s not exactly a secret that Ontario is short of every type of health worker, but the government has been reluctant to say how many more nurses, doctors and personal support workers the province needs now and in the future. So determined is this government to keep those facts from the public that it denied a Global News request for its projections on nurses and personal support workers (PSWs), arguing that the figures would damage the government’s interests when it came to health-care sector contract negotiations.