Under cover of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ontario provincial government recently passed a law called Bill 218.
This new legislation retroactively protects the owners of long-term care facilities from liability causing harm or even death to their residents, making it nearly impossible to sue for damages regardless of how blatant their negligence had been.
The Ford Conservatives also changed parliamentary rules in order to reduce debate time, thereby limiting the right of opposition members to propose amendments to legislation. In the case of Bill 218, the government cut the time normally allocated for public hearings in order to avoid listening to the testimony of dozens of family members of the deceased.
The vast majority of Covid-19 related deaths have occurred in privately owned long-term care homes. When the Canadian Armed Forces were called in to help earlier this year, they found many residents to be malnourished, several had not been isolated from those infected with the virus while others were in beds and clothing soiled with their own urine and feces.
Homes cited for violations had rarely been punished nor had licenses been revoked or even suspended. The Ford Conservatives virtually eliminated inspections and, as has often been the case under successive governments, the industry had been left to monitor itself. The proverbial fox had been placed in charge of the henhouse!
Given the number of seniors who have lost their lives while in long-term care and the industry’s cozy relationship with many Ontario Conservative members of parliament, something has to be done to reign in these for-profit entities.
Severe staff shortages, low wages, and lack of sick pay are the norm in private long-term care homes. Most have to work two or more jobs just to make ends meet and very few have any benefits at all. No wonder so few want to become PSWs (personal support workers) given such abusive treatment.
This is no way to treat these important frontline workers. Profit should never be a factor when it comes to delivering the care and protection our seniors need and deserve.
Failing provincial governments’ willingness to institute minimum care standards or to regulate private long-term care providers to ensure residents’ safety and well being, these homes must be made part of our public health care system.
Whether in long-term care homes, hospitals, manufacturing, construction, or even food inspection, it has become more evident than ever that profit has trumped the safety of both workers and consumers.
Government decisions that have allowed industry a free hand in order to reduce so-called “red tape” may well be more efficient and profitable for investors but they are dangerous and undemocratic. They go against the interests of the vast majority of Canadians and should be cause for concern.
We can certainly do better. Indeed, we must do better.
Ben Lefebvre
Iroquois Falls, Ontario
