Ontario company could get millions to rebuild nursing home where resident wasn't bathed for weeks before dying
CTV
In the end, Downsview Long-Term Care Facility lost 65 residents throughout the pandemic due to COVID-19. And while Toronto was one of the hardest-hit cities in Ontario, other homes in the same area did not lose as many residents.
GEM Health Care Group Limited, which owns Downsview Long-Term Care Facility, a long-term care home where 65 people died due to COVID-19 is in the running to get public funds to build 21 new and 295 redeveloped beds — a move that critics say, “rewards” the companies running the homes where the greatest number of people died.
In a five-part series, CTV News Toronto is examining the province's decision to allocate potential new beds and funding to the five companies. Click the links to read part one on Southbridge Care Homes, part two on Sienna Senior Living and part three on Rykka Care Centres.
The Canadian Armed Forces entered Downsview Long-Term Care Facility in North York on June 2, 2020. By that time, 52 residents and one personal support worker had already died due to COVID-19 in the 252-bed facility.
Before arriving at Downsview, the military had already entered five other homes. The details of the alleged neglect and abuse they witnessed were released in a government report and a subsequent report released by the military on two long-term care homes, including Downsview.