Protecting Communities

Maintaining older homes and securing a path to redevelopment

Older long-term care homes remain at the heart of many Ontario communities. They support local seniors, provide good jobs, and connect hospitals, primary care, and community services.

Ontario has taken important steps to advance redevelopment through the 2025 LTC Home Capital Funding Program and additional financing tools.

However, in many regions — including small, rural communities and the GTHA — significant gaps remain. As a result, many homes continue operating out of necessity in aging buildings with significant infrastructure needs. Protecting communities means ensuring these homes can remain open safely while securing clear, predictable pathways to redevelopment for the future. Preventing resident displacement and preserving access to care and local jobs.

Our Budget 2026 Recommendations

Maintain operating viability for older homes while they work to redevelop.
Optimize the new Capital Funding Program and develop specialized solutions for the approximately 200 homes left to redevelop.
Expand access to critical minor capital funding to ensure existing homes can stay open.

These steps will protect local access to care, preserve affordable housing for seniors, and support Ontario’s commitment to modern, comfortable, and safe long-term care environments.

This will protect essential community infrastructure and economic anchors

Long-term care homes support more than $12.4 billion in GDP, $9.3 billion in labour income, and over 166,000 jobs across Ontario.

With more than 50,000 people currently on the long-term care waitlist, losing existing capacity places added strain on hospitals, emergency services, primary care, and family caregivers.

With the largest growth in Ontario’s senior population projected for 2027, the urgency to protect and modernize long-term care capacity is growing. Protecting communities means protecting care capacity today and for the future.

Socioeconomic Benefits of Long-Term Care

What it takes to redevelop long-term care in Ontario

Each redevelopment project is unique, but many homes are facing similar challenges.

To deliver the government’s commitment to 58,000 new and redeveloped beds, long-term care operators must raise approximately $6 billion in equity and take on $20 billion in debt.

Redevelopment requires billions in private capital — not just public approval. The cost to build can exceed $500,000 per bed ($64 million for a 128-bed home), excluding long-term care financing costs.

While the province approves projects and provides construction funding subsidies over 25 years, operators must also secure land, arrange private financing, and contribute their own capital – this is true whether homes are municipal, not-for-profit, or privately operated.

Rising construction costs, inflation, higher interest rates, and operating pressures make it increasingly difficult for homes to demonstrate the financial stability lenders require.

Most homes must rebuild while still caring for residents.

In practice, redevelopment usually means building a new home while the existing home remains open.

If the site is too small, operators must purchase additional land — often difficult or impossible in large urban centres. If rebuilding on the same site, residents may need to be temporarily relocated, creating disruption for residents and families.

Both approaches add cost, complexity, and risk to already challenging projects.

In cities like Toronto, many existing long-term care homes are located on sites that are too small to meet modern design standards.

New homes require a significantly larger footprint than those built decades ago, and zoning restrictions in dense residential neighbourhoods can limit redevelopment options. The availability and affordability of land in urban centres remains a major barrier.

Without interim support, some older homes risk closing before redevelopment is possible.

To provide stability and a clear path forward, the province granted five-year licence extensions to many older long-term care homes, allowing them to continue operating until 2030 while they pursue redevelopment.

This was an important step. It recognized that older homes remain essential to their communities and that redevelopment takes time.

But extended licences alone do not resolve the very real pressures these homes face. Aging infrastructure brings higher maintenance costs and increased risk of capital failure. Some homes continue to rely on ward-bed funding to sustain care. These realities create financial strain and uncertainty, particularly in small, rural and Northern communities where local access to care is critical.

To ensure stability during this transition, homes require enhanced minor capital funding, continued protection of ward-bed funding, and targeted support for extraordinary capital needs. Protecting capacity now prevents resident displacement, preserves local jobs, and maintains capacity across the broader health system.

For more information:

Read our 2026 Provincial Budget Submission

Learn more