Ford will have to address Fullerton issue

When Doug Ford gets around to shuffling his cabinet, which could happen in the next few weeks, he will need to think hard and long about what to do with Merrilee Fullerton, his embattled minister of long-term care.

Fullerton may have the toughest — and most thankless — job in cabinet.

She’s in charge of overseeing 626 long-term-care facilities in Ontario. The sector has faced decades of chronic underfunding and understaffing. And now, to top it all, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in some 7,000 nursing home residents and staff infected and more than 1,800 deaths in facilities across the province.

Because of this, Fullerton, appointed to the post in Ford’s cabinet shuffle last June, is taking a lot of flak these days — much of it deserved, some of it not.

For many people, the crisis came into harsh light after a report by the Canadian military cited appalling conditions in homes where they were deployed to help out during the pandemic.

Ford expressed outrage at the findings and vowed to clean up the mess.

Importantly, Fullerton should not have needed the military report to tell her how bad things were. Numerous reports have cited a litany of woes.

But she’s done little to fix conditions since accepting her post. Under her watch, government funding for longterm care has been below the rate of inflation and mandatory annual inspections are still a thing of the past.

Indeed, she has ignored dire warnings by both residents and their family members about the sector. Here’s a simple, revealing, example. Last Nov. 25, long before COVID-19, members of the Mt. Hope Family Council wrote a detailed, five-page letter to Fullerton about conditions in homes around Ontario as well as in the past at Mount Hope Centre for Long Term Care in London where their relatives live. The centre is home to 394 residents.

In the letter, the council listed horrifying issues surrounding cleanliness, levels of care, safety and communications. They pointed the finger not at the staff, who they said were “doing their almost heroic best to care for our loved ones,” but at the provincial government.

They cited budget reductions, underfunding, lack of action plans and “draconian cuts” to services such as physiotherapy, social workers and more.

Over the next seven months, the council tried repeatedly — and failed — to get Fullerton to provide any reasonable response.

A ministry staffer called Pascal LaRouche, chair of the Mt. Hope Family Council, a few weeks after the original letter to say the council’s complaints would be reviewed by the ministry’s inspection branch. But they heard nothing directly from Fullerton.

After a followup letter in December by the council, Fullerton sent a short reply in January merely thanking it “for taking the time to share your concerns with us,” explaining how to make a formal complaint and outlining the government’s investments in long-term care.

“She did everything she could to ignore it, fob it off and refuse to deal with it. Finally was forced to send us a ‘Don’t bother me’ letter,” LaRouche told me.

But the council continued to press Fullerton to respond to further followup letters containing recommendations to fix the problems.

“The letters to the minister have yet to be acknowledged or replied to,” LaRouche said, referring to follow-up letters to Fullerton dated March 31 and April 25 that he provided to me.

A senior staffer in Fullerton’s office said the March and April letters “have not been received by our office,” adding they may have been delayed due to the pandemic. The staffer said Fullerton “is deeply grateful for the insight of family members,” adding the minister “would be please to hear from Mr. LaRouche and the Mount Hope Family Council.”

In May, Ford said in response to calls for Fullerton to resign that he would not remove her from her post. “I stand behind my minister 100 per cent.”

Given her indifference and dismissiveness toward groups such as the Mt. Hope Family Council that seek answers to the disasters in our long-term-care facilities, Ford may want to reassess his view of Fullerton.

Bob Hepburn is a Star politics columnist and based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @BobHepburn