Ontario still short of long-term care bed goal, data in fiscal update show
Global News
Ontario has built 6,700 new long-term care beds with 18,000 more underway, still short of its 58,000-bed goal by 2028; but officials say new funding will help meet the target.
Ontario has built nearly 6,700 long-term care beds with another 18,000 beds in the pipeline, a far cry from the province’s goal to add 58,000 new or upgraded beds by 2028, numbers released in the province’s fall fiscal update show.
Despite the shortfall, Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said Thursday the province will meet its goal, and an industry association believes recent funding changes will catalyze more nursing home builds.
The minister highlighted what he described as the paltry efforts of the previous Liberal government, which added just 611 long-term care beds from 2011 to 2018.
“We’ve made more investments and completed more beds in Pickering and Ajax in our term in office than the previous government did in seven years,” Bethlenfalvy said.
“So I think, yes, we’re going to not waver from achieving that goal.”
The province launched an ambitious plan in 2021 to modernize long-term care. That came in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that killed thousands of people in nursing homes.
The province said 44 long-term care homes have been built since, with another 104 either under construction or approved.
Long-Term Care Minister Natalia Kusendova-Bashta did not respond to a request for comment about the latest data.
Industry Minister Melanie Joly told the House of Commons committee on international trade the move breaches federal contracts tied to manufacturing in Brampton and Windsor, Ont.
A targeted home invasion and kidnapping led to a gunpoint standoff with police and an overnight chase across Toronto. Two suspects remain at large, investigators say.
In a post on his LinkedIn account, Simon Donner says he resigned on Tuesday and he is grateful for the opportunity to help shape climate policy in Canada.
The development charges can vary greatly from city to city, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation report found.
The three leaders will be in Washington, D.C., for the FIFA World Cup draw, marking the first time they will be in the same room together.
Flu season has arrived early, with CHEO reporting eight times more cases than last year as hospitals warn of rising infections among children and seniors.
Nova Scotia’s largest utility is responding to a stinging letter from Premier Tim Houston by insisting it hasn't broken any laws.
A British Columbia Liberal MP said Prime Minister Mark Carney "will have to answer" questions on why he reversed a budget commitment on tax credits in Alberta energy deal.
AFN Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak has said Budget 2025 failed First Nations because it did not include more infrastructure funding and educational resources for their communities.
Conservation officers in B.C. say they've captured four more grizzly bears that are being tested to determine if they were involved in an attack on a school group last month.
Joshua Wright says a yellow cedar tree he photographed last year was "incredible," the largest he'd ever seen in a decade of hiking around Vancouver Island.
Canadians could face grocery bills up to $1,000 higher in 2026 as food prices rise 4-6 per cent, with restaurants and meat seeing the biggest jumps.
Despite a growing homelessness problem in the South Okanagan city, council voted 4-2 against the project and the millions of provincial dollars that would come along with it.