A federal opposition party leader says the COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a heavy toll on seniors living in long-term care homes -- especially those living in homes run by private companies.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says that long-term care homes run by for-profit companies have seen more COVID-19 infections and more deaths than homes run by local governments or non-profit entities.
"The reason why staffing levels are so low in the for-profit [long-term care homes], is because staff cost money," Singh tells CityNews' The Rob Snow Show. "And [the for-profit home operators] want to cut corners to make a profit."
Singh says the federal government could take the first step, by converting long-term care homes run by Revera into publicly-run or not-for-profit facilities, as Revera is owned by the Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
"That'll require working with provinces, but the actual make-public portion would happen right away, with the powers that the federal government has," explains the NDP leader.
Longer-term, Singh says, he wants to see all for-profit long-term care homes become publicly-run or not-for-profit by 2030.
While that would require government spending, he argues that it would be more efficient than the current practice of governments funding long-term care beds in homes where some of the funding ends up being funnelled to shareholders.
"It's going to require some investment, but we'll be confident that every cent we spend will go towards care," Singh says. "That's going to be the big difference."
