New orders against four Martino homes

Regulatory agency alleges violations for infection prevention and control at Cathmar, Montgomery Lodge, Dundas Retirement Place and Greycliff Manor in Niagara Falls

Four homes operated by the Martino families have been hit with new orders to comply by the governing body that oversees Ontario’s retirement homes.

Cathmar Manor on Catharine Street North, Dundas Retirement Place on Main Street, Montgomery Lodge on Main Street East and Greycliff Manor in Niagara Falls are all alleged to be in contravention of regulations related to infection prevention and control.

The orders were issued May 22 by the province’s Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority (RHRA).

A fifth Martino-related home, Rosslyn Retirement Residence on King Street East, was issued a registrar’s order by the RHRA on May 15 for violating infection prevention and control regulations and “failure to protect residents from neglect.”

More than 60 residents of the Rosslyn home were sent to hospital earlier this month during a COVID-19 outbreak that emptied the facility.

Twenty staff members also became infected and seven residents of the home have died.

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.

Family members of the Martino families are associated with eight

retirement homes and residential care facilities in Hamilton. On the same day the RHRA issued its new orders, the city’s public health department also issued orders to comply to the Martino families’ Montgomery Lodge, Dundas Retirement Place, Cathmar Manor and Northview Seniors Residence on Aikman Avenue.

The public health orders alleged the homes conducted inadequate screening of residents, staff and visitors, and that the homes had inadequate staffing contingency plans, among other deficiencies.

All eight of the Martino families’ Hamilton homes are either now subject to orders to comply by the RHRA or public health, have been cited for rules violations by the RHRA or public health in the past six months, or both.

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

A spokesperson for the RHRA said the authority is in “daily contact” with the four Martino-related homes cited with orders on May 22 to “ensure appropriate steps are being taken to achieve compliance.”

“The licensees must take immediate action to comply with all outstanding orders and report to the RHRA on the implementation of those actions with supporting evidence,” stated Kathryn Chopp, director of communications for the RHRA.

“The RHRA’s primary concern is the safety and well-being of retirement home residents who are particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 health crisis,” Chopp added.

Two of the Martino families’ homes — Cathmar Manor and Greycliff Manor — had been hit with registrar’s orders by the RHRA on March 5 and April 24, respectively, before the new orders were issued last week. The RHRA can impose a range of sanctions on noncompliant operators, from monetary penalties to revoking a home’s licence.

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

It 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.