Vote for Thriving Long-term Care

On June 2, we will go to the polls to vote for who will lead our province. 

As your union, we can offer you some useful analysis as you are making your choice.  

We need a provincial government that will act in the interest of the people of Ontario, all members of our community and all workers.  

More than ever the future of long-term care is at stake.  

For-profit long-term care facilities left our elderly more vulnerable to COVID-19. We need to elect a provincial government that will invest in high-quality municipal long-term care.  

We encourage you to vote for thriving long-term care! 

The Challenges 

Advocates have been sounding the alarm on problems within the long-term care system long before the pandemic. Now we have reached a true crisis point – for-profit long-term care is not working.  

• Even before COVID, for-profit long-term care facilities had poorer health and longevity outcomes for residents than public facilities.  
• Rates of COVID infection and deaths were higher in privately owned long-term care homes in Canada than in public facilities.  
• In Ottawa, municipal long-term care homes account for about 15% of the LTC beds, they accounted for about 7% of COVID cases amongst residents and about 4% of deaths. 

Why do we allow long-term care to function outside of the public health care system? Why do we allow shareholders to make a profit from caring for our elderly? 

The problems of for-profit long-term care are now obvious to everyone: understaffing, inadequate standards of care, inadequate monitoring of homes and putting profits over people. 

The Solutions

End for-profit long-term care.  

Ontario’s municipal homes performed better than any other long-term care homes in Ontario in protecting residents from COVID-19. Ontario’s provincial long-term care programs should actively promote and support municipally operated long-term care.  

We need to see the province shifting from for-profit long-term care facilities to municipal long-term care facilities. We need to see increased staffing, hours of care and compensation within these facilities.  

All for-profit long-term care facilities were built with and operate with public funds while turning a profit for shareholders – this is unacceptable.  

What to look for at the polls?

CIPP members work so hard to make our community a good place to live, in hopes of creating a community where everyone thrives.  
 
We must vote for a provincial government that cares about our elders.  

Look for parties that have a plan to increase investment in municipal long-term care. Look for parties that have a plan to increase staffing, to increase compensation for staff and to ensure more hours of care for residents.  

These are the parties that share our vision for a community that thrives.