Providing safe, quality care for residents means long-term care homes need a stable, predictable funding model.

The Ontario government has made historic investments in long-term care, but inflationary pressures are having a significant effect on the day-to-day operations and cash flow of long-term care homes.

The costs for homes are rising for utilities, repairs, food, insurance, and multiple other areas.

Simultaneously, the funding from government for non-care expenses has not kept pace with growing costs, leading to a gap of 9% that long-term care homes across the province are trying to manage in a time of extraordinary inflation.

These inflationary costs and gap in funding are creating financial instability for long-term care homes, making it difficult for them to provide the safe, quality care that their residents need and deserve, and also to take on the risk of redeveloping their older homes.

Additional COVID funding has been vital to help long-term care homes get through the pandemic.

COVID funding has gone to COVID prevention and containment measures, and to pay for the increased costs of agency staff due to a widespread staffing shortage.

Long-term care homes cannot manage without this additional funding, but it dropped significantly in 2022 and with no guarantee it will continue.

The government also proposed phasing out funding for ward-style rooms that accommodate three or more residents.

If enacted, this policy change will destabilize long-term care homes because it will result in an estimated loss of over $300M sector-wide in level-of-care funding, annually, with over $100M impacting funding related to maintain homes (including dietary services, housekeeping, laundry and capital maintenance). This is in addition to the 9% gap in funding for the general operations of homes.

These funding deficiencies also result in challenges with long-term care homes securing financing for redevelopment because their reduced net operating income is insufficient to meet lender requirements for debt service.

In addition, the funding decreases to long-term care homes will result in layoffs of their front-line staff and reductions in allied health professionals’ support for their residents.

We understand that the Ministry of Long-Term Care is currently reviewing the policy. We ask that any wind down of funding for ward-style rooms with three or more residents be managed in a way that maintains funding for homes’ fixed costs like housekeeping, capital maintenance, etc. We also ask that it be implemented in a way that ensures homes can remain stable, plus maintain the confidence of their lenders for securing financing for redevelopment. In addition, we encourage the Ministry to work with sector stakeholders as they plan this funding change.

For more information:

Read our 2024 Provincial Budget Submission

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