Ontario bill will protect bad actors in long-term care homes, advocates say

The Ontario government is proposing restricting public access to long-term care (LTC) home inspection reports — a move advocates say will protect bad actors in the sector. 

Currently, all LTC home inspection reports are posted online. But under the proposal, contained within a bill tabled last week by Minister of Red Tape Reduction Andrea Khanjin, the reports would be published for three years before being removed from the website. 

"It's very clear here that it's to shield the bad reputations of repeated bad actors in long-term care from having their records of non-compliance being made visible," said Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos, a professor at Ontario Tech University and long-term care advocate, in an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Tuesday. 

Over 30,000 reports are currently available online, dating back over 15 years, including for homes that are no longer operational, according to the Ministry of Long-Term Care.

The ministry will continue maintaining reports outside the three-year time period, and reports will be available "upon request," spokesperson Mark Nesbitt said in an email on Monday. 

"By setting a three-year publication period for reports, the government is ensuring the public has access to relevant and accurate information that reflects each long-term care home's current performance," he said. 

The time frame is similar to other inspection industry practices, such as for child-care settings, he said.

But Stamatopoulos called the comparison a false equivalency. Children don't live in daycares, and the history of deaths, noncompliance and abuse in Ontario LTC homes demands a full public record, she said. 

From March 2020 to April 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic, 4,335 residents died in Ontario's LTC homes, according to a September 2023 report from the province's ombudsman.

The Canadian Armed Forces released a report in May 2020 detailing disturbing conditions observed by its members in five Ontario LTC homes, including accounts of elder abuse and an accusation that improper care led to the choking death of a resident. The soldiers were called in to help after some of the province's long-term care facilities were overrun by COVID-19 outbreaks.

If the government does implement the three-year time frame for online access to inspection reports, Stamatopoulos says by 2026, "the worst of the worst times in long-term care is just going to be gone." 

"And then eventually, it will all be gone." 

Many people accessing the online reports may be trying to decide which LTC home they or their family member would like to apply to, said Graham Webb, executive director of the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, a legal aid clinic that serves low-income seniors. 

He said he doesn't see any advantage to the public by reducing the online access window.