Ford stumbles over long-term care inquiry call

Count us among those who would agree that Premier Doug Ford and his government have provided solid leadership, for the most part, during this pandemic.

Until this week, that is. This week, the government voted against an NDP motion that would have resulted in a full, independent public inquiry into Ontario’s long-term care system. That was a mistake, and one the government will probably live to regret.

Ford and his previously nearly-unknown minister of long-term care Merrilee Fullerton both insist they know the system is broken, but a public inquiry is not needed, and would take too long to deliver results.

Instead, they promise a government review of the system, which they say can move more quickly and deliver urgent remedial action. Maybe, maybe not. But if there was ever a case for a full public inquiry, surely this is it.

They key difference between a public inquiry and a government-appointed commission is control. Consider the words of Peter Graefe, an associate professor at McMaster University whose expertise is political institutions. In an interview with iPolitics, Graefe said: “If it’s a government review, in other words, the sitting government gets to control the thing.” He expanded: “It’s going to be led by bureaucrats, but the bureaucrats are responsible to the minister, presumably of long-term care in this instance, or the ministry of health. They aren’t responsible and open to the public. The government can do a lot to quiet things down, to set the parameters . ... If there are things they don’t want to look at, they can decide not to look at them. So there’s a much greater capacity to keep things private.”

Of course, the optics here are terrible. No one is accusing the Ford government of being completely responsible for the now-deadly long-term care crisis. Liberals held power for 15 years previously and didn’t adequately address growing problems that were anything but secret. Neither of these completely escapes responsibility.

It must be noted that the last really significant reform of the system occurred at the hands of the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government during the 1990s. It judged the private sector was better able to make the system prosper and opened the door to privatization. Now, the majority of longterm care homes are owned by private interests, including one large company which has as its board chair none other than the same Mike Harris, who is paid $237,000 a year for the part-time job.

Finding fault and laying blame for the current broken system isn’t the purpose of a meaningful, holistic overhaul that will ensure this tragedy never happens again. But to find the answers to those questions, we need to understand what has happened up until this point. A government controlled review, even one labelled “independent” is less likely to find and transparently report both the questions and the answers than a proper public inquiry, especially if some of what is uncovered is embarrassing to the party that controls the current government, and to one of the most powerful conservatives in the province — the same Mike Harris.

What of the criticism that public inquiries are unwieldy and take too long? That can be true, but it does not have to be. The government still controls the terms of reference, and could build in interim reports and recommendations that could come into place before the final report.

SARS killed 44 in Ontario. Elizabeth Wettlaufer, eight. Walkerton, six. Ipperwash one. All these were followed by public inquiries. So far, COVID-19 has killed more than 2,000. Yet Ford doesn’t think a public inquiry is needed. He needs to think again.