Long-Term Care Staffing Crisis
Chronic understaffing in long-term care homes exacerbated by wage caps and for-profit expansion, with military reports documenting horrific care deficiencies during COVID-19.
🏥 An in effect Healthcare policy from May 2020 · Well sourced · Also seen in AB, NS
Updated · Created
"Fixing Long-Term Care"
The government is investing in long-term care to ensure seniors receive quality care in modern facilities with adequate staff.
"Wage Caps, Legal Immunity for Operators, and Military Reports of Neglect"
The Canadian Armed Forces documented residents left in soiled diapers for days, not fed or given water, and insect infestations. Death rates in for-profit homes were nearly 4x higher than in municipal homes. Rather than hold operators accountable, the government passed Bill 218 to retroactively shield them from lawsuits, and Bill 124 made staffing worse by suppressing wages.
- Military reports documented residents crying for help with nobody coming — patients died from neglect, not COVIDsource
- For-profit homes had significantly higher death rates than municipal homessource
- Bill 218 retroactively raised the legal bar to "gross negligence," blocking family lawsuitssource
- For-profit operators paid $171M in dividends to shareholders while receiving $138.5M in government COVID reliefsource
This section represents editorial interpretation of documented evidence.
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