Ontario’s seniors want long-term care results

Over the past decade, we’ve seen two different approaches to health care in the Province of Ontario. The present government focuses on higher taxes and bloated bureaucracy, while the former government, in my view, focused on results and strategic investment.

Last week, I joined the debate on Bill 140, the Long Term Care Homes Act. The McGuinty government characterizes Bill 140 as a ‘revolution’ in long term care. In fact, it’s a legal exercise, consolidating three existing laws into one – basically a ‘cut and paste’ of three old laws to create one ‘old’ law.

When questioned about its lack of commitment to seniors the McGuinty government still speaks out against the results the former government delivered.

Many will remember the $2.1 billion investment in long-term care announced in 1998. That money was dedicated to build 20,000 brand new beds, and to rebuild 16,000 of the province’s oldest beds.

The results kept rolling in 2003 when we gave local long-term care infrastructure a shot in the arm – with the announcement of 64 new beds for Parkview Meadows in Townsend. Dunnville’s Grandview Lodge maintained 128 beds, plus Dunnville received an infusion of 64 new beds for Haldimand War Memorial.

Near the end of our mandate, the former Minister of Health, Tony Clement, came through in a big way for Norfolk General Hospital – confirming an eventual total of over $8 billion for the new emergency department. That announcement dovetailed Ministry approval for a CT scanner at NGH.

The results were real – the money flowed, beds were opened, and patients directly benefited. Now, the current McGuinty government has a new agenda – it hikes taxes, bloats bureaucracy, and attempts to portray these higher fixed costs as extra health care spending.

I’ve always believed that increasing health care spending is an effective strategy – but only if that money provides a tangible benefit to real people. Unfortunately, the present government doesn’t understand that healthcare spending must be targeted at results – not press releases.

Over the past year we’ve seen the old-style, bureaucracy-first style of health spending. Millions were spent creating health care ‘school boards’ with the creation of the LHINS (Local Health Integration Networks). Common sense makes it clear the Long Point should not be in the same local bureaucracy as the Bruce Peninsula and Tobermory. And constituents are still questioning why St. Williams, Dunnville, and Caledonia are in the same bureaucratic catchment area as Burlington and parts of Halton.

Last week I rose in the Legislature to speak out against a bill that is nothing more than a rewrite of old laws, with the Long Term Care Homes Act. I’m concerned that it’s a “politician’s healthcare law” instead of being a “senior’s healthcare law.”

Rather than continuing to invest in new beds for seniors, the McGuinty regime is passing off its legal house-cleaning as a revolution in long-term care.

But we are missing out on a huge opportunity to provide nutritional standards for seniors. And we are sentencing seniors to years of sleeping in beds designed to meet 1972 standards. And we are stalling on our obligation to continue with the investments made by our former government.

Seniors shouldn’t have to wait for a new government for results – but increasingly, that is the reality Ontario is facing.