Premier must back up long-term care promise with money

November 2, 2020

QUEEN’S PARK — Mike Schreiner released this statement after the Ford government announced a plan to guarantee four hours of resident care per day in LTC:

“I will be the first person to support improvements in long-term care, but residents cannot wait four years for minimum standards of care that are desperately needed now.

Nothing in this government’s record suggests they are in a hurry to fix long-term care.

The Premier didn’t start hiring additional staff until the end of September, denying elders the dignity they deserve after more than 1800 residents died in the first wave.

Any guarantee of higher standards is only as good as the money to implement it.

The price tag for hiring the nurses and PSWs needed to guarantee four hours of care is $1.6-1.8 billion and I expect to see this funding in the budget if the Premier is serious.

Doug Ford has used a lot of magic math in the past to mislead people, and we need to see if this promise is more than another accounting trick.”

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