The provincial government has voted down an NDP motion calling for a full, independent public inquiry into Ontario’s long-term care system.
Premier Doug Ford says they will leave it up to an independent non-partisan commission to determine what needs to be fixed in a broken system.
“Anything I see, the people are going to see. It’s going to be fully transparent, like we have been transparent right from day one of this crisis. We need to make changes and we’re making changes every day. We know a lot of the problems.”
Ford stresses “We aren’t going to be waiting two and a half, three years, for someone to tell us things that the commission can tell us. An independent commission that will be fully transparent to the public.”
Ford adds at the end of the day he’s the one responsible to ensure the government gets answers and that’s why he’s not going to sit and wait for an inquiry.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says “It’s unconscionable for the Ford government to refuse to launch a full, independent public inquiry into how badly Ontario’s long-term care system has failed vulnerable seniors, and how to fix it. Voting no to a public inquiry is salt in the wound of families grieving the loss of loved ones to COVID-19 in long-term care, and for health care heroes who are run off their feet and still pleading for personal protective equipment. It is a cause for us all to worry that the painful, dangerous, decades-in-the-making problems in long-term care are not going to change.”
Horwath adds “To fix the system, we need to give a voice to seniors, workers, experts, and families who’ve lost loved ones. We need to closely examine the role of private, for-profit corporations in long-term care.”
She stresses “For the government to review the government with a behind-closed-doors government-controlled commission is not good enough. People deserve better.”
