Home-care spending to grow $700M over three years

Budget will cut wait times, help 46,000 more patients

Keeping waits for home and community care to five days — as demanded by the New Democrats — will cost an extra $700 million over the next three years, Finance Minister Charles Sousa says in his first budget.

Sousa set the five-day “target” to get assistance for another 46,000 patients with care needs, such as nursing help and personal support in their homes, once they have been assessed by community care access centres.

“More people will quickly receive the care they need, where they need it,” Sousa said in his budget speech.

The money, starting with $260 million this fiscal year, is more than eight times higher than the $30 million demanded by NDP Leader Andrea Horwath as one of several conditions for supporting the budget.

But it falls short of the oft-repeated “five-day home-care guarantee” Horwath has been pushing since shortly after Premier Kathleen Wynne took over from Dalton McGuinty.

“When we asked for guarantees, we didn’t get guarantees,” Horwath told a news conference, saying her party will now look for ways to make the government “accountable” for the promise.

A government source said the Health Ministry, which now spends $4.3 billion a year on home and community care, is planning a target instead of a guarantee because “delivering home care is a little

Liberals’ five-day “target” for home care falls short of five-day “guarantee” demanded by NDP leader

more complicated than delivering a pizza in 30 minutes or it’s free.”

Health groups applauded the increase for home care, given the rapidly aging population, but the Ontario Health Coalition’s Natalie Mehra warned that it’s “demonstrably false” the government can get away with flatlining hospital funding at $17 billion.

The budget also sets aside another $5 million this fiscal year to help people quit smoking, with more initiatives to be announced later by Health Minister Deb Matthews.