The Ontario Election And Seniors: a Green Party Response

With the Ontario provincial election coming up, we asked the four political parties (Green, Liberal, NDP and PC) to respond to several questions of concern to seniors and their families.

QUESTIONS:

1. How do you plan to promote positive aging in Ontario and how will you make Ontario a more age-friendly province?


2. What specific things will you do to make health care more accessible and affordable to seniors?


3. What will you do to increase seniors' economic well-being including: employment access, adequate pensions, increased affordability of prescription drugs and care, and affordable housing?


4. How will you create supportive infrastructure for seniors in Ontario? Will you establish a cabinet committee on aging and provide financial incentives so that service hubs for seniors can be developed where required?

As each party leader sends their answers, we will share them with you. The third response we received was from the Greens.

GREEN PARTY OF ONTARIO, Mike Schreiner:

1.   How do you plan to promote positive aging in Ontario and how will you make Ontario a more age-friendly province?

Over the coming decades, the success of Ontario’s health-care strategy and the sustainability of our public system will depend on providing cost effective and dignified care for seniors. Ontario must honour seniors by providing access to quality home care, transitional care and long-term care facilities.

The Green Party of Ontario will prioritize investments in health promotion and preventing illness, which are financially responsible and improve quality of life. Quality home care is an important part of this strategy. We believe that it is time to honour our seniors.

2.   What specific things will you do to make health care more accessible and affordable to seniors?

The Green Party is committed to honouring our seniors by improving the care available to Ontario’s aging population.

Over the coming decades, the success of Ontario’s health-care strategy and the sustainability of our public system will depend on providing cost effective and dignified care for seniors. Ontario must honour seniors by providing access to quality home care, transitional care and long-term care facilities.

We will ensure that seniors receive a quality continuum of care coordinated by case managers.

It is clear that professional home care, transitional care, assisted living and long term care services are an important part of enriching the quality of life and the health and well-being of seniors.

Continuum of Care

The Green Party will promote a continuum of care, so that home care services, supported housing, assisted housing, transitional and respite care, and long term care are available when and where they are needed. This not only provides better service for seniors, their families, and their caregivers, but it also is less expensive than hospital care and leads to efficiencies for the whole health care system.

Invest $2 billion over 4 years

Green MPPs will invest an additional $2 billion over 4 years  in better, more affordable care for seniors. Our investments will focus on providing an appropriate continuum of care for seniors, including increased investment in home care, transitional care, assisted living and long term care services.

Additional tax credits

We will provide additional tax credits for family members staying home to care for seniors. Additionally, we will invest in case managers to help seniors navigate the health care system. We want to create an assisted living and affordable housing strategy focused on the seniors population, coordinating with other levels of government. The focus will be to give seniors the support they require so they can live as well and as independently as possible, for as long as possible.

3.   What will you do to increase seniors' economic well-being including: employment access, adequate pensions, increased affordability of prescription drugs and care, and affordable housing?

Green MPPs would reform the funding model for long-term care homes to increase flexibility and to encourage innovation and efficiencies.  We would also work with the Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services for Seniors, the Ontario Long Term Care Association, seniors organizations and other stakeholders to develop comprehensive strategic plan for seniors’ care and to identify appropriate funding levels for long-term care homes.

We support a government-led capacity planning exercise to develop a comprehensive, long-term strategy for the long term care sector, including a sustainable funding strategy to serve our ageing population.

4.   How will you create supportive infrastructure for seniors in Ontario? Will you establish a cabinet committee on aging and provide financial incentives so that service hubs for seniors can be developed where required?

The Green Party promotes investments to support all long term care homes to provide services in compliance with provincial standards. On top of that, we will ensure that funding actually is implemented. For example, Ontario announced in 2008 a $1.1 billion Aging At Home Strategy but after two years, only $45 million went to home care services.

Amend the Assessment Act

We will amend the Assessment Act to exempt all not-for-profit homes from property taxes, whether they began as nursing homes or charitable homes.

We will review the regulatory framework for long-term care homes to ensure high quality care, while encouraging innovation and without placing onerous administrative burdens on front-line staff.

Long-term care homes are funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care through a complex system. Under the funding system, long-term care homes cannot transfer money from one area to another, regardless of need, and money unspent in any particular envelope is reclaimed by the Ministry of Health at the end of the year.

This rigid system limits long-term care homes' ability to be innovative or to respond to unique or changing circumstances and requirements. The very heavy, detailed and centralized "one-size-fits-all" regulation also inhibits the ability to respond to unique or changing circumstances and discourages innovation.

Comprehensive long-term strategy for long term care

We support a government-led capacity planning exercise to develop a comprehensive, long-term strategy for the long term care sector, including a sustainable funding strategy to serve our ageing population.

Also, we will re-examine implementation of the government's Appropriate Level of Care strategy, particularly the critical needs component, to achieve a balance between patients' needs and the ethnic, cultural or religious makeup of individual homes.