FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Not Much of A 'Revolution' For Long Term Care Home Residents

OANHSS Open Letter to Minister Smitherman - Dec. 4, 2007 (pdf format - 3 pages)
2008 Ontario Budget Speech (pdf format - 18 pages)

TORONTO (March 25, 2008) – It will be one step forward and two steps back for long term care residents in today's budget.

Long term care homes were seeking over $500 million more a year in operating funding in order to provide an acceptable and adequate level of care for residents. Instead, the Ontario government has allocated just $107 million over three years to hire 2,500 personal support workers and an unspecified amount for 2,000 nurses.

"Earmarking money for specific positions forces homes to hire when they can't maintain the staff they already have. It becomes a shell game if homes are laying off at the same time as they are hiring," said Donna Rubin, CEO of the Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services for Seniors (OANHSS).

Today's announcement means that the level of care in these homes will actually decline this year as inflation, wage adjustments and other operating costs outstrip the dollars toward new hires. As the funding shortfalls continue to mount, the situation will continue to deteriorate.

"We're slipping backward, not moving forward, and that's bitterly disappointing for the 76,000 long term care residents in this province who were expecting more," said Rubin. "This is certainly not going to make Ontario a leader in helping its most vulnerable citizens."

In the not-for-profit sector, which includes municipal and charitable long term care home and non-profit nursing homes, the supporting organizations are doing everything they can to address the situation. Charitable foundations and municipalities are topping up government funding by more than $150 million a year to maintain a level of care that the province has been unable to support.

"But I don't know how long they can continue to make up the shortfall," Rubin warned.

The budget also includes $278 million for 'various programs'. "This sounds like a big figure, but this funding will not flow directly to resident care," said Rubin.

In December last year, OANHSS sent an open letter to George Smitherman, Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, in which it identified what it believes are the most important objectives to be achieved over the next four years. It said it would measure the government's progress by these benchmarks. (See attached letter.)

Based on today's budget, OANHSS members will be disillusioned about this government's real commitment to long term care. The lack of adequate funding means that Ontario will continue to lag behind other progressive jurisdictions in the level of care provided to those living in long term care homes.

OANHSS acknowledges some positives in this budget for not-for-profit long term care, including a review of the property tax treatment of homes established under the Charitable Institutions Act. The Association was also pleased to see the broadening of the OSIFA infrastructure loan program to include social housing, the re-confirmation of the Aging At Home Strategy, funding to support the capital re-development of B and C homes, and the 2 per cent increase to the comfort allowance for long term care home residents.

OANHSS is the provincial association representing not-for-profit providers of long term care, services and housing for seniors. Members include municipal and charitable long term care homes, non-profit nursing homes, seniors' housing projects and community service agencies. Member organizations operate over 27,000 long term care beds and over 5,000 seniors' housing units across the province.

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For further information, contact:

Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes & Services for Seniors
7050 Weston Road, Suite 700, Woodbridge, Ontario L4L 8G7
(P) 905-851-8821
(F) 905-851-0744

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OANHSS members include not-for-profit providers of long term care, services and housing for seniors in Ontario.
Members include municipal and charitable long term care homes, non-profit nursing homes,
seniors' housing projects and community service agencies.