(June 24, 2020)<\/p>\n
By: Zaid Noorsumar, RankandFile<\/p>\n
The Ontario PC government of Premier Doug Ford has rejected the Official Opposition\u2019s call to remove profits from the province\u2019s home care sector.<\/p>\n
During the standing committee meetings for\u00a0Bill 175<\/a>\u00a0on Monday and Tuesday, the government struck down all of the amendments proposed by the opposition parties. The NDP proposed 19 amendments to the legislation, including:<\/p>\n For-profit agencies deliver most of the publicly-funded home care in Ontario. As\u00a0Rankandfile.ca<\/em>\u00a0has\u00a0previously reported<\/a><\/span>, this public money is diverted away from direct care by the profit-taking, administrative costs, and executive compensation of each agency (including non-profits).<\/p>\n Last week in the public hearings on Bill 175, Opposition MPP Joel Harden (NDP) asked the lobby association that mainly represents for-profit providers if they would agree to mandatory disclosure of executive pay and administrative costs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was evasive,\u201d said Harden of the response from Home Care Ontario CEO Sue VanderBent while speaking to\u00a0Rankandfile.ca<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if anybody takes public funding, all of what you get (and how it\u2019s spent) needs to be disclosed to the public. There should be no debate about that. And this industry unfortunately has not been well-regulated for\u00a0 a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n As we have\u00a0previously reported<\/a><\/span>, this legislation is beneficial to the for-profit providers at the expense of workers, families and caregivers.\u00a0Home Care Ontario did not respond to\u00a0Rankandfile.ca<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n Based on records available through the Ontario Lobbyist Registry, Home Care Ontario\u2019s current lobbyists include Amy Boddington and\u00a0Andrew Boddington<\/a><\/span>, both of whom have ties to either provincial or federal conservative parties.<\/p>\n Andrew Boddington was the executive director of the Ontario PC Party from 2012-2014 and Amy Boddington worked as a policy advisor in the Stephen Harper government.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Shelly Jamieson is on the\u00a0board of Ontario Health<\/a><\/span>, the \u2018Super Agency\u2019 now running health care in the province. Jamieson was previously an executive at Extendicare, the for-profit long-term care and retirement home corporation that also owns the home care firm ParaMed.<\/p>\n Jamieson also served as the\u00a0head of Ontario\u2019s public service<\/a><\/span>\u00a0under the Liberals from 2007-2011 and a volunteer member of the Health Services Restructuring Commission under the Mike Harris government which ultimately closed 11 hospitals and 3,700 hospital beds.<\/p>\n Based on records obtained from Elections Ontario and the National Post\u2019s political donations database, the\u00a0private home care lobby donated $236,928<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to political parties from 2010-2016. Since then, corporate donations have been banned.<\/p>\n Home Care Ontario alone donated $134,520 of which $78,294 went to the Liberal party, $54,525 to the Progressive Conservatives and $1,701 to the NDP.<\/p>\n Natalie Mehra, the executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, says that \u201cwell-heeled lobbyists\u201d have an oversized influence on government policy compared to families and advocacy groups.<\/p>\n\n
For-profits evade call for accountability<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Links between government and industry<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\u201cWell-heeled lobbyists\u201d have the government\u2019s ear<\/strong><\/h3>\n