Concerned Friends of Ontario Citizens in Care Facilities (Concerned Friends) welcomes the Government of Ontario’s efforts to build new Long-Term Care (LTC) homes through investments by the Building Ontario Fund and for providing an additional $139.4-million (2 per cent increase) in annual funding for sustainability of LTC. However, despite these commitments, we remain concerned that these investments are not enough to achieve significant improvement in the LTC sector. While we recognize these investments, they do not address structural issues in LTC including staffing, accountability, and care models.
Concerned Friends, therefore, continues to call on the Government of Ontario to:
- Provide capital investment plans that prioritize not-for-profit and municipal homes and community options to meet Ontarians’ growing need for care. While capital has been provided, we remain firm in our stance that public funds should be used to benefit residents and recipients of care. We do not support the increasing privatization of LTC in the province.
- Provide funding allocations to develop and operate small LTC homes (maximum 12 residents) or assisted living models for seniors premature for LTC. These settings have been well-researched and are known to provide more effective, safe and respectful care.
- Implement the provincial commitment to annual, unscheduled, proactive, inspections of every LTC home. The 2026-27 budget did not designate any funding to address the barriers to achieving this critical element of accountability and quality control.
- Develop a comprehensive human resource strategy to address the range of issues undermining quality and access in LTC. While we appreciate the investment of $95.3-million to support existing service offerings, and investments in Clinical Education of Nurses, there is still a need to launch a strategy that has a well-established relationship between the number and skill mix of staff and residents’ quality of care. This also includes pay equity and working conditions comparable to those in other health care settings, continuous professional education, infection control nurse specialists, and adequately prepared dietary personnel.
- Reframed staff-resident ratio that accurately reflects need. It is encouraging to see a $44.1-million investment, starting in 2026–27, to ensure every resident continues to receive an average of four hours of direct care each day from nurses and personal support workers, and 36 minutes of care from allied health professionals. However, Concerned Friends urges the government to move towards a staffing model that better accurately reflects the needs of increasingly complex residents.
For greater accountability, moving forward, we encourage the Government of Ontario to establish the position of Seniors Advocate to:
a) identify and respond to issues affecting seniors in LTC and those in the community requiring long-term care services.
b) to promote policies and regulations to improve access for these populations.
Concerned Friends will continue to advocate for a system of LTC that provides evidence-informed, safe and quality care for Ontario’s increasingly complex senior population who require access to services that meet their diverse medical, mental health, social and emotional needs.
For more than 40 years, Concerned Friends of Ontario Citizens in Care Facilities (Concerned Friends) has been advocating for a system of long-term care (LTC) that provides evidence-informed, safe and quality care where clients have a full continuum of long-term care options, including small group long-term care settings, supportive housing and home-based care, must be adequately funded and monitored to ensure equitable access.
