NDP lifts voices of long-term care families at Queen’s Park at 1,000-family virtual question period

QUEEN’S PARK — Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath and the NDP MPPs will use question period Tuesday to bring the voices and stories of long-term care families to Queen’s Park while thousands of families watch online.

Horwath’s New Democrats will share the lived experiences of Ontarians in long-term care and their loved ones, as the Ontario Health Coalition virtually fills the public galleries of the Legislature. The stories include Ontarians who lost both parents to the COVID-19 crisis in long-term care, who sounded the alarm about the crisis in long-term care long before the pandemic, and who suffered greatly from being isolated and cut off from their loved ones during the pandemic.

“We must never forget the precious lives lost in long-term care, nor the parents and grandparents who remain in nursing homes and need our help more than ever right now,” said Horwath. “Doug Ford failed seniors badly, and if he’s not going to fix long-term care when there’s a big spotlight on the crisis, imagine how much worse things will get if we let that light dim.

“The Liberals’ Kathleen Wynne and Steven Del Duca handed Ford a long-term care system in crisis, but Ford made it worse. Ford cancelled comprehensive inspections before the pandemic, and during the pandemic he falsely claimed to be building an iron ring around nursing homes while protecting for-profit companies instead of seniors and shortchanging families of a full independent judicial public inquiry.”

With Tuesday’s day of action, the Ontario Health Coalition is aiming to put pressure on the Ford government to take a series of urgent actions in long-term care — all of which the NDP has been calling for:

• Speeding up staffing increases
• Moving to a minimum standard of four hours of hands-on care per resident per day now
• Ensuring accountability for negligence
• Eliminating profits from care
• Improving access to caregivers

“Ontario families can rest assured that the NDP will keep standing shoulder to shoulder with them in the fight for justice and reform in long-term care,” said Horwath. “If I were premier, I would be making urgent changes today to fix the system and improve quality of care for seniors as they age.”

The NDP’s plan to overhaul home care and long-term care in Ontario includes hiring thousands of personal support workers, making the system fully public and not-for-profit, and strengthening protections for seniors, as well as treating family caregivers like partners.