HAMILTON — Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath is calling on the Doug Ford government to treat the report of the Long Term Care Commission as an urgent call to action. She released the following statement:
“We thank the Long Term Care Commission for their work, and especially thank all the witnesses who shared their heart-wrenching testimony about the failures of government — failures that left our beloved parents and grandparents to live and die in horrible conditions.
Nearly 4,000 families across the province have lost loved ones in long-term care to COVID-19. The Ford government and the corporate operators of long-term care homes failed to protect them. Premier Doug Ford, Health Minister Christine Elliott and Minister of Long Term Care Merrilee Fullerton must be held accountable. Those executives and companies who allowed people to die needlessly, alone and in pain must be held accountable.
The commission paints a picture of years of neglect, followed by devastating choices by the Ford government to cancel inspections, deny staff paid sick days, leave facilites brutally understaffed, forego infection prevention and control, and allow the COVID-19 virus to spread quickly while the government acted slowly. It also calls the privatized, for-profit model into question.
The NDP team is going to continue to review this report in the coming hours and days. Sorrow for the survivors and families of the victims is not enough. We need to act urgently on this report to ensure this never, ever happens again.”
