Province plans probe into long-term-care homes,

‘Independent commission’ to launch in fall, but will fall short of public inquiry

Ontario is promising an “independent commission” into the long-term-care system where COVID-19 spread like wildfire, but opposition parties and health-care unions warn it falls short of a full public inquiry like the one into SARS.

The effort will begin in September with details on a leader and membership to come, Long-Term Care Minister Merrilee Fullerton said Tuesday as the death toll among nursing home residents from the highly contagious new coronavirus reached at least 1,408 with five employees dead.

She and Premier Doug Ford rejected a public inquiry with broad powers to compel witnesses, documents and records as repeatedly demanded by opposition parties in recent weeks, insisting that process would take years.

“We need answers now,” Ford told a news conference on a day that saw Ontario’s overall COVID-19 count rise by 505 confirmed and probable cases to 24,929 and deaths increase by 14 to 2,018 in the previous 24 hours, according to a Star compilation of data from health units at 5 p.m.

“People’s lives depend on us getting the answers as soon as possible. We cannot afford to wait,” said Fullerton, a former family doctor.

More than 6,000 nursinghome residents and staff have been infected, with residents accounting for about threequarters of the official provincial death tally despite Ford’s promise to construct an “iron ring” of protection around vulnerable nursing home residents living in close confines ripe for the spread of any bug.

Critics blame the government for not acting soon enough to supply nursing homes with masks and other personal protective equipment, limit visitors and ban part-time staff from working at more than one facility to limit the spread of the virus, which has ravaged longterm-care facilities across Canada and in other countries.

The New Democrats, Liberals and Green party said they favour a full public inquiry free of government control, and insisted many improvements needed in the nursing-home system can be made without waiting for a full slate of recommendations.

“As you find the problems, you fix them,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, joining Green Leader Mike Schreiner in calling for a minimum standard of daily care for nursing home residents, higher wages and fulltime jobs and benefits for personal support workers so they don’t have to hop from one home to another to make a living.

“It’s pretty clear that the premier wants to control what the report says,” Horwath added. “A full public inquiry takes the control out of the hands of the government.”

Liberal House Leader John Fraser said Ford’s promise of an independent commission is suspect after the findings of his last one were shot down by two independent watchdogs — the province’s auditor general and the Financial Accountability Office. Responding to concerns about the commission’s independence, Fullerton said “it will have public input, it will have public hearings.”

The president of a leading health-care union, whose 60,000 members include personal support workers who have contracted COVID-19 at nursing homes, said Ford’s claim of urgency to avoid a public inquiry also rings hollow.

“The rationale today was timing. They’re not even talking about doing a commission until September,” said Sharlee n Stewart of the Service Employees Internation Union.

Public inquiries have been held into tragedies with far fewer deaths than COVID-19, such as SARS with 44, tainted water in Walkerton, which claimed six victims, and the case of nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer, who killed eight nursing home residents.

Fullerton said details of the commission will be finalized over the summer, including terms of reference, a leader, membership and reporting timelines. The Ontario Long Term Care Association said it supports the commission “so it can address long-standing and systemic issues highlighted by COVID-19.”

“Ontario’s long-term-care homes urgently need expedited capital redevelopment funding, interim investments for older homes to enable effective infection control, more supplies and rapid testing,” said chief executive Donna Duncan.

Her association represents most of the province’s private, not-for-profit, charitable and municipal nursing homes.

Duncan said the commission must include unions representing long-term-care workers, address long waiting lists and allow more time for staff to take care of residents’ many daily needs.

Nursing-home residents account for about three-quarters of province’s official COVID-19 death tally