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Ontario is investing $1.1 billion more in home health care as it grapples with the reality that it is unlikely to achieve its goal of building 58,000 new long-term care beds by 2028.
The funding boost for home care is part of Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s 2026 budget that projects a $13.8 billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.
But the budget released Thursday also lays out the stark reality of the province’s ambitious goal to deliver 58,000 new or upgraded nursing home beds within two years.
As of February, the province said about 26,000 nursing home beds are “either open, under construction or approved to start construction.”
Bethlenfalvy was asked if the province could still achieve its goal.
“Well, we’re going to continue to try,” he said. “We’re ambitious here.”
“We’re going keep building, and we’ll get as far as we can because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
The money toward home care will roll out over the next three years. The province is investing about $6 billion total into home care in the next few years, Bethlenfalvy said.
“A part of our strategy for health care is to help people where they want to be taken care of,” he said.
“I know many, many people who would prefer to age at home … so we’re transitioning to providing that home care.”
The money will go toward hiring more nurses and personal support workers, with the goal of helping thousands more patients receive medical attention at home and providing some relief on overburdened hospitals and long-term care homes.
Funding follows calls from LTC advocates
The new funds follow calls from some in the long-term care industry who wanted to see investment in home care and supportive housing for seniors as a way to help nursing homes, most of which have wait times of months or years.
AdvantAge Ontario, which represents the vast majority of municipal and non-profit nursing homes in Ontario, made the unusual request for more money for other related sectors and asked the government to invest at least $600 million into home care.
Long-term care operators have said the best way for people to get into care homes now is by going through the hospital first. That allows patients to be designated as in crisis, which gives them higher priority over others seeking a long-term care bed.
Data from the Canadian Institute of Health Information shows more than 50 per cent of long-term care admissions are people coming from a hospital, a 67 per cent jump from pre-pandemic levels.
The situation is particularly problematic in Toronto, which is down about 700 beds due to nursing home closures.
In 2019, the province said it would build 30,000 new long-term care beds within the next decade.
Then COVID-19 hit in early 2020, and the virus ripped through Ontario’s long-term care homes, leaving thousands dead. Some homes were so badly hit they needed help from Canada’s military to operate.
A military report on Ontario long-term care homes battling COVID-19 details devastating flaws and lapses, some of which may predate the pandemic.
Stalled progress leaves seniors in ‘bad spot’: opposition
The stalled progress on the Progressive Conservatives’ $6.4-billion long-term care plan leaves seniors in a bad spot, said Liberal interim Leader John Fraser.
It’s a lot of “big talk” from Ford with little action, Fraser said.
“They’re pretending, they are not protecting,” Fraser said, referring to the Ford government’s “protecting Ontario” slogan that it has used since last year’s election win.
“The Conservative government is behind on building the number of long-term care beds it said that it would build and that’s really concerning,” said NDP finance critic Jessica Bell.
“We’ve got an aging population in Ontario, loved ones need a good home for their parents to go into.”
