Long-Term Care Minister Rod Phillips is encouraging Ontarians to provide feedback to the government on whether or not some of the province's long-term care homes, including those where terrible tragedies occurred during the pandemic, should have their licences renewed.
His comments came Thursday, a day after protesters gathered at the Orchard Villa long-term care home in Pickering to demand that the government deny its application for a 30-year licence extension and an expansion of 87 additional beds.
Phillips said he would not personally interfere in the licence review process, which is led by officials in his ministry, but urged Ontarians to provide input.
"The licensing process is something that happens, not that politicians direct, but that's part of a process," he said, adding that a public hearing into the application for Orchard Villa was happening that day. (Concerned citizens can also provide written feedback until June 25.)
"Certainly what happened at Orchard Villa hit in the heart and soul of all of us," he said. "It was awful. And those are the sorts of things that, again, the part of the ministry that considers licensing will consider, but we're in the midst of the public consultation process."
Phillips added that his government will be taking action in the fall by introducing new legislation that will "make sure that the kind of governance issues, the kind of oversight issues that happened at too many homes in Ontario don't happen again."
"Expect that it will deal with the lessons we learned from the pandemic, not just as it relates to governance and oversight and accountability, but the broader issue of making sure our long-term care sector protects our residents, protects our staff in a way that it needs to," he said. He did not specify if it will include changes to the licensing process.
The process Orchard Villa is currently undergoing will take into account public feedback, as Phillips described, but also other government priorities. The ministry provided a list of factors:
- Financial viability and stability;
- Project readiness, including certainty regarding zoning, servicing, land acquisition and intention to complete construction by 2025;
- Upgrading older homes in response to lessons learned around improved infection prevention and control, particularly the elimination of three- and four-bed rooms;
- Providing spaces for Francophone and Indigenous residents, as well as other cultural and linguistic communities;
- Promoting campus of care models and addressing the growing number of seniors requiring specialized and complex care services;
- Geographic diversity to address the varying long-term care needs across the province, including areas with significant demand and rural or remote communities.
The licensing process is currently a massive undertaking for the ministry because about one-third of the province's beds — some 26,000 — have licences that expire in 2025 and the government is obliged to give three years of notice if they are to be discontinued, according to testimony given to the long-term care commission.
Michelle-Ann Hylton, the director within the Ministry of Long-Term Care that oversees this process, told the commission those are largely older, outdated homes and the province's capital program to rebuild and expand homes to bring them up to modern standards and address the growing waitlists for care, is tied to the licensing process.
She agreed with the chief commissioner's suggestion that there is pressure to grant additional licences because of the need for new and redeveloped spaces.
"To some extent, the ministry has to take that into consideration, because we do want to add capacity," she said, adding that the ministry has to "strike an important balance" between "the safety of residents, the safety of the structures, the financial health of the licensee and the organization as a whole," among other factors.
"Under the legislation, the licensing team, me especially as the director, I have to weigh all of those things," Hylton said. "So not just the need for beds, but whether or not we are in a position where we can safely licence beds and expect that these beds will continue to be in operation in a safe way over a period of time."
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