Care Watch keeps a close eye for opportunities to contribute to discussions and influence legislation and policy. We respond to invitations for feedback and look for other opportunities to promote home and community services. Our comments include submissions to officials, commissions, government bodies, and other individuals and groups.
Letter to Hon. Stephanie McLean
July 11, 2025
We call on the new Secretary of State to advocate for an international convention on the rights of older persons, stable home and community care funding, consistent standards, and compensation for paid and unpaid caregivers.
June 4, 2025
Care Watch calls on the Minister of Seniors and Accessibility for more flexible home care, a benefit for unpaid caregivers, better wages and working conditions for personal support workers, consistent provincial standards, and priority for non-profit providers.
A New Federal Government: Keep on asking the questions
May 2025
Care Watch calls for the new provincial government to reintroduce the Support for Seniors and Caregivers Act. We also recommend making access more flexible, addressing the shortage of personal support workers, prioritizing non-profit providers, and instituting a benefit for unpaid caregivers.
Support for Seniors and Caregivers Act. Letter to Hon. Raymond Cho
March 26, 2025
Care Watch calls for the new provincial government to reintroduce the Support for Seniors and Caregivers Act. We also recommend making access more flexible, addressing the shortage of personal support workers, prioritizing non-profit providers, and instituting a benefit for unpaid caregivers.
2025-2026 Ontario Budget. Letter to Hon. Peter Bethlenfalvy
March 26, 2025
Care Watch urges the Minister of Finance to make high quality home care accessible by investing in services, introducing standards, and reforming the process for selecting providers.
Operational Direction: Home First. Letter to Ontario Health CEO.
March 24, 2025
Ontario Health has directed a system of assessment, care planning, and services for home care. Will there be enough funding to carry out this direction, and will clients in the community have the same priority as those coming from hospitals?
Submission on Bill 235 – Support for Seniors and Caregivers Act
January 20, 2025
The Support for Seniors and Caregivers Act can improve dementia care and add protections against abuse and neglect. However, it doesn’t make services more accessible or address the human resources needed to deliver them.
Accessible Home and Community Care for Older Ontarians: 2025 Pre-Budget Recommendations
January 16, 2025
Care Watch calls on Ontario’s government to give older adults the services they need, to give fair compensation to the people who deliver these services, and to support non-profit community-based agencies.
Care Watch Calls For an Audit of the Prequalification Process for Home Care Providers
August 15, 2024
Care Watch is asking Ontario’s Auditor General to conduct an audit of the prequalification process for home care providers. When providers are chosen, we call for transparency, clear selection criteria, and public accountability.
Regulation Regarding Prescribed Entities Under the Seniors Active Living Centres Act, 2017
March 22, 2024
Care Watch expresses concerns about the proposed regulation under the Seniors Active Living Centres Act, 2017. We recommend stronger municipal participation along with inclusion of Indigenous Friendship Centres as Prescribed Entities.
January 23, 2024
In our 2024 pre-budget submission, Care Watch calls on the Ontario government for funding to increase capacity in home and community services, pay personal support workers equitably, and investigate cluster care models.
Submission on Bill 135, Convenient Care at Home Act, 2023
November 15, 2023
Ontario’s Convenient Care at Home Act, 2023 aims to make access to home care simpler and better coordinated. We are concerned that it emphasizes patients coming from hospitals. We recommend that there be clear pathways to home care for older adults who want to remain in their homes. We also recommend that non-profit agencies be giving priority when contracts are awarded, that all organizations be held accountable for care, and that steps be taken to attract and retain a strong home and community care workforce.
Submission to the Safe Long-Term Care Act Consultation
September 14, 2023
The Safe Long-term Care Act is an important step. Now government needs to adopt and enforce consistent national standards for care in long-term care homes and also in homes and communities. Along with standards, home and community care needs a significant increase in funding. Federal action is needed to establish a national system of care for older adults that responds to their needs and preferences, operates smoothly and effectively, and is sustainable on a long-term basis.
Submission to the Standing Committee on Social Policy Regarding Bill 60: Your Health Act, 2023
March 27, 2023
Care Watch opposes Bill 60, which would transfer many surgical and diagnostic procedures to private (often for-profit) clinics. We believe the results will be service barriers, higher costs, weaker standards, and greater pressures on public hospitals. We recommend withdrawing the bill and concentrating instead on recruiting and retaining the health professionals the system sorely needs.
February 2023
A government uses its budget to express its priorities. We call on the government of Ontario to build and fund a comprehensive system of care for older adults that starts in homes and communities. We ask for significant investments in home and community services; priority for community-based non-profit agencies; a provincial strategy to recruit and retain personal support workers; equal pay for personal support workers across homes, communities, and institutions; and a secure place for home and community services within planning and funding structures.
2023 City of Toronto Budget – Letter to Mayor Tory
January 16, 2023
Municipalities are responsible for public health, transportation, housing, and recreational opportunities – the conditions that keep older adults in their homes and communities. We ask the mayor and the budget committee to invest in housing for older adults and in the local community agencies that deliver home care and personal services. We also urge Toronto to advocate to the provincial government for wage equality so that the workers who deliver these community services earn as much as those who work in institutions.
January 2022
Older adults want to remain in their homes and communities as long as possible. The number, always high, grew when COVID-19 exposed the conditions that sickened and killed many residents of long-term care homes. Now, nearly 100% of older Canadians say they want to stay in their homes and not live in institutions.
Submission to the Standing Committee on Social Policy on Bill 283 (Regulatory Authority for PSWs)
May 2021
Regulation of personal support workers and similar care workers has been discussed for some time. We understand and appreciate the value of professional regulation and, in general, support the initiative. However, we have several concerns.
Submission to the 2021 Pre-Budget Hearings
February 2021
Home care is the first line of support for older adults and the health care system. Older adults living safely at home are less likely to go to emergency rooms or to end up in hospitals or long-term care homes. Keeping people in their homes can relieve pressure on current long-term care beds as well as on the new beds being built. It also makes sound financial sense.
Submission to Ontario’s Nursing Home COVID-19 Inquiry
November 2020
Care Watch welcomes the nursing home COVID-19 inquiry. Home care and institutional care serve many of the same clients. They also draw workers from the same pool. What the inquiry teaches us will benefit the system as a whole.
Care Watch 