Complete overhaul could cost taxpayers billions

OTTAWA — Canada’s budget watchdog says upgrading the country’s long-term care system would come with a hefty price.

A report published this morning by parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux estimates ending wait lists, increasing staff pay and benefits, providing more hours of care each day and expanding home care could cost around $13.7 billion.

That includes more than $8 billion to add 52,000 new long-term care facility beds, increase private-sector wages 15% and ensure every resident gets about four hours of direct care per day, an increase of almost one hour compared to current averages.

It would take another $5.2 billion to ensure spending on home care amounts to no less than 35% of total spending on long-term care.

That’s all over and above the $23.7 billion provincial and territorial governments spent on long-term care and home care in 2019-20. Giroux’s report also estimates the funding would have to increase by more than 4% a year to keep pace with Canada’s aging population and inflationary pressures on wages.

The report, based on a motion put forward last March by Green MP Paul Manly, comes as a federal election appears imminent and political pressure is high on Ottawa to help provinces fix a system ravaged by COVID-19.

Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, a research director at the National Institute on Aging at Ryerson University, said nobody should be surprised by the size of the figure, but added it’s time for Canadians to have a conversation about “what kind of Canada do we want people to age in.”

Manly said Canadians will be watching closely to see what parties offer to do for longterm care in the next election, noting it’s an issue not just for seniors living in care homes now, but also for their families, and for those seniors and older adults looking at their own options for the not-too-distant future.