Re: “Health minister won’t commit to tabling safe long-term care bill,” (The Hill Times, July 21, p. 6).
How is this even possible with the urgent need to protect seniors in long-term care?
We would all like to have our memories of the COVID-19 pandemic fade, but nurses can’t, and governments certainly shouldn’t.
Long-term care residents accounted for three per cent of all COVID-19 cases, and 43 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in Canada—a greater proportion than any other country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Canada also had one of the highest infection rates for COVID-19 among health-care workers.
I was dismayed that safe long-term care legislation is not a priority on the new Liberal government’s agenda. The Hill Times’ review of Health Canada’s 2025-26 departmental plan reveals that the government has seemingly abandoned a promise to table a Safe Long-Term Care Act.
The previous Liberal government was working towards tabling an Act, and this one should, too.
Access to quality and safe long-term care is becoming further out of reach for people across Canada. A 2024 survey of Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions members revealed that long-term care nurses have the highest rates of dissatisfaction with their workplaces, with more than half indicating that the quality of care had deteriorated over the course of a year.
There is a roadmap to safe long-term care. We can support workers in the sector with a strategy that attracts and retains skilled caregivers. Let’s also start with enforcing the Health Standards Organization and Canadian Standards Association guidelines, including a minimum of 4.1 hours of direct care per resident per day. We must eliminate for-profit homes, which had the highest mortality rates during the pandemic, and redirect federal funding to public and non-profit homes.
It’s not the time to stick our heads in the sand and try to forget the pandemic. The federal government must do right by our seniors and ensure Canada is a leader in long-term care.
Linda Silas
President, Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions
Ottawa, Ont.