BY: MATIAS DE DOVITIIS
A new 320 bed Long-Term Care home is coming to Downsview and is already under construction.
However, most people are not aware of it as little consultation or outreach has been done about the project by the provincial government.
The building is being constructed at the Finch Campus for the Humber River Hospital, at Finch and Oakdale. Doug Ford's government used Ministerial powers to cut through any consultation or municipal planning process and allow for the fast-tracking of the project.
Photo credit: Humber River Hospital.
Canada has a mixed public/private LTC mix, which are both paid for largely by taxpayers.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed in Ontario and Quebec just how dismal the standards are in the private sector. A study found that Canada had the worst record amongst wealthy nations in keeping seniors in homes safe from COVID-19. In some Canadian provinces, seniors died in the thousands, but this was not the case in other places in Canada and throughout the world or even in most publically run LTC's. 3,778 seniors died in LTC's during the worst of the pandemic, and the atrocious conditions in some locations necessitated bringing in the army to provide staffing and relief.
The Opposition ONDP in the legislature asking a question about the business connections to the government’s $3billion investments in LTCs. Photo credit: Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos
26 seniors were reported to have died from thirst by the army last year at Downsview Long-Term Home, located on Keele in the Downsview area. A coroner's inquest was announced and included Hawthorne Place, at Finch and Elana amongst the places that were being investigated. Unfortunately, since the mass casualties in 2020, little has been done to advance an investigation into how so many seniors were left to die, many through sheer neglect. This is despite the Premier's promise that "there is going to be justice". Neither the OPP nor the coroner's office seems to have started an investigation after all that would be able to get to the bottom as to who was responsible for the 1000's that died while in care of mostly private LTC's.
Where the Provincial government has moved on quickly is in making big investments into spaces that will be used for future LTC's. The official opposition is claiming up to $2 billion in public money is going to private LTC providers. In the case of the LTC being built on the Finch site of the Humber River Hospital, the Province was motivated to push through on the project and used what is called Ministerial Zoning Orders. These allow the Province to grant construction rights without any municipal government oversight: e.g. no re-zoning, no site plan, no public meetings, no reporting of any kind is required to begin construction. You can see some details on the Hospital's website, but little else is easily found: https://www.hrh.ca/humber-meadows-long-term-care-home/
The large investments made by the Province, which are on the back of the lack on an investigation into the corporate entities responsible for the largest numbers of deaths during the pandemic, begs many questions about accountability and justice and the priorities of a provincial government that struggled throughout the pandemic to look out for the needs of regular people over big financial corporate interests.