Blanche River Health (Kirkland) v. SEIU, Local 1, 2026 CanLII 47911 (ON LA)
Patrick Kelly, Arbitrator — May 21, 2026
SEIU challenged Blanche River Health’s chosen wage rate for a new Patient Transitions Facilitator classification, arguing the role carried responsibilities well beyond the Registered Practical Nurse rate assigned by the Hospital. The case did not decide the proper wage rate; instead, it addressed a preliminary evidentiary fight over what comparators the Union could rely on to prove its case.
Background
The Hospital created the Patient Transitions Facilitator position after eliminating a Patient Flow Navigator role from the ONA bargaining unit and placing the new role in the SEIU bargaining unit at a rate equivalent to the Registered Practical Nurse classification. The Union asserted that the PTF’s duties exceeded those of an RPN and proposed a wage rate of $47.97 per hour, compared with the Hospital’s rate of $35.97 per hour.
The collective agreement language was central to the dispute. Article 26.03 provided that where the parties could not agree on the wage rate for a new classification, the arbitrator’s decision “shall be based on the relationship established by comparison with the rates for other classifications in the bargaining unit having regard to the requirements of such classification.”
The Union wanted to call evidence about the former ONA Patient Flow Navigator role, the ONA Geriatric Evaluation and Management Nurse role, and similar PTF-type jobs at other hospitals. The Hospital argued that Article 26.03 confined both the decision and the evidence to classifications inside the SEIU bargaining unit.
Decision
Arbitrator Kelly accepted the Hospital’s preliminary motion. He held that the concluding sentence of Article 26.03(a) expressly framed the adjudicator’s task as a comparison between the new classification’s rate and the rates for other classifications in the bargaining unit, having regard to the requirements of the classification.
On that reading, the Union could lead evidence about bargaining unit classifications such as Personal Support Worker or Registered Practical Nurse, but not about the job content or compensation of classifications outside the SEIU bargaining unit. The arbitrator found that the evidentiary record had to conform to the scope of the decision-making authority the parties had negotiated.
The motion therefore succeeded, although the arbitrator made clear that the Union remained free to call evidence showing how the PTF’s requirements allegedly exceeded those of an RPN or any other classification within the bargaining unit. The hearing was scheduled to continue on August 26, 2026.