COVID-19 Backgrounders, Fact Sheets & Briefing Notes

RELEASE & BRIEFING NOTE: The Privatization of COVID-19 Testing in Ontario

(March 30, 2022) Click here for printable version of release Click here for printable version of briefing note   Health Coalition Demands the Ford Government Stop 2–Tier Privatization of COVID–Testing& Restore Access to Public Testing Urgently as the Pandemic’s 6th Wave Gains Amplitude Toronto – Step by step, the Ford government has been privatizing PCR […]

FACT SHEET: Why Stop the Privatization of Long-Term Care

(March 8, 2022) How Long-Term Care is Being Privatized There have been two big initiatives to privatize LTC in Ontario in recent decades: In 1998, Ontario’s Conservative Mike Harris government built 20,000 new long-term care beds and allocated the majority of them to for-profit corporations, including large chain companies. This tipped the balance from a […]

RELEASE & BRIEFING NOTE: Ontario Health Coalition Demands Answers from Ford Government on Long-Term Care & Hospital Crisis

(January 13, 2022) Toronto — The Ontario Health Coalition issued a statement today demanding that the Ford government explain what it is going to do about the spiralling crisis in Ontario’s long-term care homes and hospitals, and answer for their lack of preparedness. “The failures at this point in the pandemic are inexcusable,” said Natalie […]

BRIEFING NOTE: The Horrifying Truth About For-Profit Long-Term Care Homes

(December 1, 2021) Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic As of November 29, 2021, 4,023 residents died as a result of COVID-19 alone. Others died of malnutrition, dehydration, and neglect due to lack of care as COVID-19 rampaged through their long-term care (LTC) homes. Many of the COVID-19 related deaths in LTC homes are also associated […]

LEGAL OPINION: Proposal from Southbridge Care Homes Inc. re Orchard Villa in Pickering, Ontario

(September 1, 2021) Click here for full legal opinion. A summary of the legal opinion can be found below. Click here for press conference releasing the legal opinion. Click here for media release. The Ministry of Long-Term Care is reviewing a proposal from Southbridge Care Homes Inc. (“Southbridge”) for a 30-year license to redevelop, expand […]

RELEASE & BRIEFING NOTE: A Critically Important Warning in New Financial Accountability Office Report: Ford Government’s Long-Term Care Plan is a House of Cards

(May 27, 2021) Toronto – The new report on long-term care from Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office “FAO” supports what the Ontario Health Coalition has been warning about and more. In the neutral language of accounting, it highlights that there is no actual plan to fund needed health care services in the Ford government’s budget. It […]

RELEASE, SUMMARY & ANALYSIS: Ontario Health Coalition Summary & Analysis of Ontario’s Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission Final Report

(May 5, 2021) A media release and the Ontario Health Coalition’s full summary & analysis of Ontario’s Long-Term COVID-19 Commission final report can be found below. Coalition Outraged at Ford Government Response to Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission: “Total Failure in Leadership, no Conscience” Toronto – Premier Doug Ford returned to the Legislature today after being […]

RELEASE: Ontario Budget: Health Coalition is Watching for Sufficient Health Funding, Strings Attached in For-Profit LTC & A Stop to the Ford Government’s Privatization of Health Care

(March 24, 2021) Toronto – The Health Coalition said today that the funding numbers for health care in the budget are going to look huge of course, due to the pandemic, but the Coalition will be watching to make sure that funding is indeed enough. Equally important to the amount of funding, are strings attached […]

RELEASE, BRIEFING NOTE & LEGAL OPINION: Advocates Representing More Than 1 Million Canadians Call For National Standards to Improve Quality, Accountability and Take Profit Out of Long-Term Care

(March 22, 2021) Click here for the legal opinion on national standards. The media release and briefing note can be found below. Legal Opinion on National Standards Media Release Ottawa/Across Canada – Today, advocates representing more than a million Canadians came together to demand that the federal government and provinces work together to establish national […]

RELEASE & BACKGROUNDER: Health Coalition Demands that Ford Government Stop Privatizing Health Care Under Cover of COVID-19: “There is no excuse not to use reopen & ramp up existing capacity in public system”, Coalition will do everything in its power to stop the undermining of public health care

(September 24, 2020) Toronto – The Health Coalition expressed deep concern about the Ford government’s privatization of health care services, the lack of a coherent plan for a second-wave of COVID-19, and cuts and layoffs at public hospitals while the government shifts funding to private companies for COVID-19 related services. On Monday, Premier Ford said, […]

FACT SHEET: Fact Sheet on Revera Inc. For-Profit Long-Term Care & Retirement Home Chain Owner

(September 16, 2020) October 3 Update: Information on what action can be taken to end for-profit long-term care and what you can do to help make Revera public, along with follow up to a virtual town hall meeting that took place on September 16, can be found below the fact sheet. Revera Fact Sheet Who […]

BRIEFING NOTE: COVID-19 in Long-Term Care Litigation & Legal Actions

(September 16, 2020) Click here for printable version of the briefing note found below. ——- There have been at least two dozen legal actions as a result of the conditions in long-term care and the responses to the spread of the virus, exposed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, including filing […]

RELEASE & BRIEFING NOTE: Fact Check & Briefing Note on Inspections in Ontario’s Long-Term Care Homes

(May 29, 2020) Toronto – The Ontario Health Coalition, which has advocated for more than two decades for annual unannounced full resident quality inspections of all long-term care homes, issued a fact checker to clarify what has happened with the homes’ inspection and enforcement regimen. The following are the facts as released today by the […]