Horwath vows to stop the cuts and fix home care everywhere with more nurses, more PSWs

ESSEX – By training and hiring 30,000 nurses and 10,000 new PSWs, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath will make sure home care is available everywhere in Ontario.

“We can give our loved ones a better quality of life as they age — in their own home, living on their own terms,” said Horwath. “Home is the happiest, healthiest place for our parents and grandparents, and by investing in home care everywhere we can protect older Ontarians’ quality of life.”

“We’re going to stop the cuts, and invest so people can live at home longer. With our plan, seniors will get home care as often as they need, wherever they live. We’ll end the last-minute cancellations, no-shows, and rushed PSWs that don’t have enough time to deliver what’s needed. And we’ll help seniors to turn their homes into forever homes with safety renovation grants, and property tax deferrals that put hundreds of dollars more in their pockets every month to help with groceries, gas and living a more full life.”

There’s a massive staffing shortage in home and community care in Ontario, where staff vacancies tripled in 2021. The Ontario Community Support Association reports that 18,000 people living in long-term care in 2019 could have been at home with better home care. The Ontario Hospital Association reported 750,000 patient days where someone was trapped in a hospital bed because community care wasn’t available.

Horwath and the NDP’s plan to fix home care so seniors can live at home longer includes:

• Making a record $1 billion investment into home care on top of what Ontario already spends, starting with a direct investment of $235 million more in the first year.
• A new, reliable, expanded basket of services will include things like transportation to appointments and meal preparation.
• Training, recruiting and returning 30,000 nurses and 10,000 PSWs. To do that, Horwath will repeal Doug Ford’s low-wage policy bill 124, give all PSWs a $5 raise above pre-pandemic levels, pay home care workers for mileage and travel time, and turn PSW jobs into full-time permanent jobs instead of part-time gigs.
• Transitioning the entire home care system back to public and non-profit hands, eliminating the privatization that left people at the mercy of for-profit companies that don’t find small towns as lucrative as big cities.
• Give seniors access to a property tax deferral program. Seniors will be able to choose to have the province pay their property tax for them. The homeowner reimburses the province only when they sell their home. For a senior who pays $4,500 in property tax, that will leave another $375 every month for things like groceries, gas, transit and leisure.
• Introduce a Seniors Home Safety Grant to help seniors cover the cost of handrails, stair lifts, and other modifications to make their home safe.
• Introducing a Caregiver Benefit program to give caregivers $400 a month to help with expenses they take on when providing regular care for a loved one, like covering their mileage and buying personal care items.

Previous Liberal and Conservative governments broke home care by cutting and privatizing it, and Doug Ford is privatizing Ontario’s home care system even further.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” said Horwath. “Together on June 2, we can stop the cuts and finally fix our broken home care system.”

Background

Aging Ontarians Deserve the Best: Horwath’s seniors care platform

• Overhauling home care to help people live at home longer:Ending the for-profit, understaffed patchwork of home care companies that make seniors wait and fail to address the inequities. This includes bringing the system into the public and non-profit sectors over eight years, as well as new provincial standards for home care services, and culturally-appropriate resources, training and job-matching.
• Seniors Property Tax Deferral:Andrea Horwath and the NDP will allow seniors who own their home to defer property taxes until their house is sold. The province will finance the deferral, so municipalities don’t see their tax bases reduced. Evidence from a similar program in British Columbia shows that seniors will maintain substantial equity in their homes, ensuring that they can pass something along to their kids and grandkids. The government gives the homeowner a loan to cover their taxes, which is repayable when the home is sold, with interest. Seniors aged 55+ are eligible to defer taxes on their primary residence. The annual property tax bill in Ontario can be as high as $6,500.
• Seniors Home Safety Grant:The Ontario NDP will transition the Seniors’ Home Safety Tax Credit to a Seniors’ Home Safety Grant Program, where up to $5,000 in eligible expenses are covered, eligible expenses for the program will remain the same, and grants will be processed through the same single-window entity we are creating for the Home Retrofit Program and will cover the cost of handrails, stair lifts, and other modifications to make homes safer for seniors.
• Caregiver Benefit:The Ontario NDP recognizes the invaluable role that family caregivers play, and all the ways they help with their time and money. That is why we will create a provincial Caregiver Benefit Program that provides direct support to family caregivers to expand on existing federal tax credit programs. This program would provide $400 a month to informal caregivers of elderly, frail, or infirm loved ones. After one year, the program will be evaluated to determine the most appropriate rate. This program is modelled after the Nova Scotia Caregiver Benefit Program.
• Making all long-term care and home care public and not-for-profit:Ending greedy profit-making at the expense of quality of care. Horwath is committing to phase out for-profit operators within eight years, and increasing financial reporting, transparency and accountability during the transition period.
• Building small, modern, family-like homes:The gloom of being warehoused in institution-like facilities is over. An NDP government will immediately start building small nursing homes that actually feel like home. Based on best practices from around the world, the NDP will build smaller living spaces shared by groups of six to 10 people. In a small town, it could look like a typical family home. In bigger cities, it could look more like a neighbourhood of villas.
• Staffing up with full-time, well-paid, well-trained caregivers:Instead of the revolving door of staff run off their feet, the NDP will give personal support workers a permanent wage boost of $5 an hour over their pre-pandemic wages. The NDP will mandate enough staff to guarantee at least 4.1 hours of hands-on care per resident per day, establish a dedicated fund for training personal support workers, and more.
• Creating culturally responsive, inclusive and affirming care:The NDP will make sure seniors feel at home, surrounded by their language and culture, and make sure 2SLGBTQIA+ seniors can always live with Pride. This includes partnering with communities, Indigenous nations and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities to fund community homes, and more.
• Clearing the wait list:Clearing the 38,000-person wait list that can mean years waiting for a bed, and even longer for a culturally appropriate home. The NDP will create up to 50,000 spaces and eliminate the wait list within eight years.
• Guaranteeing new and stronger protections:Comprehensive inspections, a Seniors’ Advocate, and more will ensure care never goes downhill again.

media@ontariondp.ca