Rosslyn operators ‘shirked responsibility’: councillor

Hamilton politicians have harsh words for family’s handling of deadly outbreak at retirement residence

Hamilton politicians had harsh words Thursday for the horrific COVID-19 outbreak at the Rosslyn Retirement Residence, as well as the family that operates the facility and several other care homes in the city.

Councillor Nrinder Nann, whose Ward 3 includes the Rosslyn home, said the operators “shirked their responsibility in a health pandemic” after the King Street East facility was emptied last week due to a shocking coronavirus outbreak.

More than 60 residents of the Rosslyn home were sent to hospital and 20 staff members became infected from the outbreak. Four residents of the home have died.

The Rosslyn is associated with members of the Martino families, who also operate seven other retirement homes and residential care facilities in Hamilton.

Brothers Aldo Martino and the late John Martino owned the Royal Crest Lifecare chain of care homes until it collapsed into bankruptcy in 2003, leaving Ontario taxpayers on the hook for $18 million.

Seven of the homes associated with the Martinos, including one in Niagara Falls, have been found in violation of numerous provincial or city regulations within the last six months. Two of the Hamilton homes — Rosslyn and Cathmar Manor on Catharine Street North — have been hit with orders recently by the province’s governing body for retirement homes, demanding they comply with the law.

“These are our parents and our grandparents who live in these facilities and (it’s troubling) to have an operator who has had a legacy of performance issues in this sector,” said Nann, whose ward includes five of the homes associated with the Martino families.

“It is absolutely deplorable, disheartening and unbelievable at a time when so many other people in the community understand this is a time of joint responsibility and everybody has a role to play,” she added.

Representatives of the Martino family did not respond to a request for comment.

“It’s nothing short of a tragedy that 17 years later, we’re here again and people’s lives are again being put at risk,” said Sandy Shaw, NDP MPP for Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas. Her riding includes the Martino family’s Dundas Retirement Place.

“Where’s the failure in systems that don’t protect vulnerable folks, that don’t protect our parents and our grandparents?” Shaw asked.

NDP Leader and Hamilton Centre MPP Andrea Horwath said she’s concerned that the history of Royal Crest from the early 2000s appears to be repeating itself.

“Now here we are almost 20 years later and it seems as though the same group of characters is making money off of cutting corners and not providing appropriate care for people in residential homes,” said Horwath, whose riding includes six homes connected to the Martinos, including Rosslyn.

“It’s just a terrible, terrible situation,” Horwath said. “We just shouldn’t be allowing these kinds of facilities to continue to operate in such dismal ways, that create such horrifying environments for our seniors and our loved ones.”

The provincial NDP is demanding the Doug Ford government call a public inquiry into long-term care. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a shockingly disproportionate number of deaths in care homes across the province, particularly those that are private, for-profit operations.

“If there’s one area where we can never look away again it’s how we treat our vulnerable folks and our seniors,” said Shaw. “We need to look at how a profit-driven system has made this situation so much more precarious for people.”

“There’s big money in this sector and it’s quite clear that we need to understand that adding a profit motive to these kinds of services doesn’t always serve the folks best who need those services,” Shaw added.

Nann said she supports the call for a public inquiry and she also supports a provincial takeover of care home operations.

“It completely exposes how much this private for-profit business model cannot be the way moving out of this pandemic on how we are going to care for our elderly and our vulnerable populations that require assisted living,” Nann said. “I think they’ve had their chance to attempt to take care of our elderly and they’ve shown that when private interests and profit interests are at play, they’re clearly not up for the job.”

Since last week’s outbreak at the Rosslyn home, the city’s public health department has been conducting urgent inspections of the other homes associated with the Martino family.

Royal Crest and the Martino brothers were the subjects of an extensive Spectator investigation in 2003 and 2004.

The investigation showed Ontario’s health ministry had provided more than $500 million to Royal Crest in a decade leading up to the chain’s collapse, but the ministry hadn’t conducted its own audit of the company in the three years prior to the bankruptcy.

“If there’s one area where we can never look away again it’s how we treat our vulnerable folks and our seniors.”

SANDY SHAW

MPP FOR HAMILTON WEST-ANCASTER-DUNDAS