Letter to Premier Doug Ford and Minister Christine Elliott

June 26, 2020

IMPORTANT: WITHDRAW BILL 175 – The Connecting People to Community Care Act, 2020

COVID-19 continues to reveal truths about how Ontario cares for its seniors in long-term care homes and in the community. We are still learning, and the review of long-term cre your government has planned will teach us even more.

Bill 175 proposes sweeping changes to the home care system in Ontario. If passed, even with minor modification, it will adversely affect the more than 700,000 people (most of them seniors) who rely on home care. It also affects care in public and private hospitals and in non-licensed congregate settings. On May 20,2020, Care Watch outlines its concerns Bill 175 in a submission to the Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly. Since then, what we learn almost daily amplifies these concerns.

We agree that home and community care needs reform and modernization, but this is not the time for such wholesale and profound change. Your government has shown it can act decisively when it sees danger. We urge you to exercise that same decisiveness now by withdrawing Bill 175. Careful consideration of your own long-tem care review and consultations with a broader range of stakeholders will result in revised, and stronger, legislation.

Sincerely,

Michèle Harding, Chair, Care Watch Ontario

Copy: Eric Rennie, Committee Clerk