QUESTION PERIOD — Health
Long-term Care System
May 27, 2021
My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.
Senator Gold, a paper titled Investing in Care, Not Profit was recently published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives offering recommendations for transforming long-term care in Ontario in the wake of the devastation of COVID-19.
The COVID pandemic has made it clear, hasn’t it, that Canada has a fundamental problem in providing a consistent high-quality level of long-term residential care to those whose lives and well-being depend on it.
Over two thirds of Canada’s overall death rates occurred in long-term care homes, a ratio more than 50% higher than in other OECD countries.
This catastrophe and tragedy are rooted in decades of underfunding and neglect as the recent reports by Ontario’s Auditor General and Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission have made clear.
We know that we have a key problem here and that is that long-term care falls outside of the Canada Health Act.
Senator Gold, long-term care is obviously an essential component of Canada’s health care system. In a recent budget, the federal government committed $3 billion over the next five years for long-term care, while the provinces will spend more than $30 billion in each of those years.
An important component of our response to this crisis is the provision of predictable, meaningful and sustained federal funding and associated national standards. Is the government examining how and when these important components in rebuilding our system of long-term care will be put in place?
Thank you for your question. The government is well aware of the importance of protecting those who are living in long-term care facilities and making sure that they meet appropriate standards. The government indeed is working with the provinces and the territories to advance discussions on national standards, and by supporting this process of developing national standards, the $3 billion in the budget to which you referred will contribute, we hope, to permanent changes.
As well, the Fall Economic Statement of November 2020 committed $1 billion to create the Safe Long-term Care Fund which helps provinces and territories to protect people in long-term care. The government will continue to work with governments and stakeholders on this important initiative.
One of the problems that we have, Senator Gold, is that long-term care falls outside of the predictable federal transfers that we’d find under the Canada Health Act. Is the government contemplating including long-term care as part of the Canada Health Act? If it isn’t, will it otherwise commit to long-term sustainable and predictable funding for the operation of Canada’s long-term care homes?
Thank you for your question. As I mentioned, honourable senators, given the constitutional jurisdiction over health, the Government of Canada is working with the provinces and territories on the issue generally, which includes questions of funding both short- and longer-term.
Thank you, Senator Gold.
