RALLYING FOR SAFETY
Concerned parent Kiavash Najafi holds three-year-old Navid Najafi as he speaks Sunday at Safety-Palooza, a rally held at the Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street to call for mandatory vaccination policies.
Ready, set, go.
In the coming weeks, candidates will be on your doorstep. It will be your chance to ask them what they plan to do about issues that matter to you.
We asked Ottawa residents what they would like local candidates to address. Today, we spoke to Rose Anne Reilly, whose mother died in long-term care.
Rose Anne Reilly's mother, Rose, died on Jan. 1 at the age of 104, about six weeks after she tested positive for COVID -19 and a month after her case was considered resolved. Rose had been a resident at Extendicare Starwood in Nepean, where there have been 26 resident deaths.
Her daughter believes that with pandemic memories of so may LTC deaths still fresh, this election is the time to seek a firm commitment to include LTC under Canada-wide legislation.
Jurisdiction over health and health care is a shared federal-provincial responsibility. The Canada Health Act defines the health services that must be included by each province's health insurance to qualify for federal funds.
But long-term care is not included, and it's a patchwork from province to province, said Reilly.
She wants to see national standards introduced. And if standards are on the table, she wants to see smaller European-style LTC homes as part of those standards, to allow for a more homelike experience for residents.
The election is also an opportunity for a plan to turn for-profit homes into not-for-profits, Reilly argues. As of February 2019, 58 per cent of LTC homes in Ontario were privately owned.
“There has to be more accountability for the way in which we treat our elderly and disabled.”