Ontario long-term care homes with poor care records are getting tax dollars to expand

While the Ontario government says it's on track to hit its target of 30,000 new long-term care beds by 2028, a CBC News analysis of government records found several of the homes that plan to expand with taxpayer support are run by operators with repeated violations or poor outcomes through the pandemic.

Minister of Long-Term Care Paul Calandra says he is confident that homes will be compliant with new accountability and oversight tools introduced in their legislation, the Fixing Long Term Care Act, which came into effect in April 2022.

However, some measures designed to fix problems in Ontario long-term care since the pandemic appear to fall far short of what the province promised, with fines applied inconsistently and proactive inspections only happening in a fraction of the homes.

CBC News looked at the monetary penalties issued from April 2022 to the beginning of May 2023, and examined each home's inspection reports which detail the specifics of the violations. Those reports were then compared to some homes with similar repeated violations who haven't received fines. 

CBC also compared proactive inspection counts before and after the pandemic, and found that where homes used to get a proactive inspection once a year before they were cancelled in 2018, only a fraction have had proactive inspections since reinstating them in 2022.

Meanwhile, as part of the push to hit its target for new long-term care beds, the province is paying for expansions at homes run by operators with some of the worst COVID outcomes.

Calandra remains confident in the homes the ministry has supported, he told CBC in an interview.

"The regulations that we have put into the Fixing Long Term Care Act, the standards that we put into that, far exceed anything that was being done prior," said Calandra. 

"We're going to make significant investments but the standards are going to be the highest in North America."

But Jane Meadus, a lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly says the province shouldn't be so quick to trust the operators that she says have failed seniors in the past.

"I think that you [should] have to show that you have a good track record in order to get these expansions and get this extra money," said Meadus, refering to the subsidies for expansion.

"I think they shouldn't be rewarded," she said. "In fact, I don't think they should be getting licences."

Early in the pandemic, Premier Doug Ford said he "wouldn't hesitate to pull licences" after the military was called in to some homes struggling to keep their residents alive. The Canadian Armed Forces reported cockroaches and filthy conditions inside homes, with some residents dying of dehydration rather than COVID.

But instead of pulling licences, his government opted to revamp the Long-Term Care Homes Act to increase oversight and enforcement measures with the expectation that they would bring any bad actors into compliance.