On Wednesday, October 28, the Ontario legislature will debate Bill 13, the Time to Care Act. The NDP legislation will mandate a four-hour care standard across Ontario’s long-term care homes, requiring employers to improve staff-to-resident ratios. Based on latest pre-pandemic government data, Ontario’s long-term care homes average about 2.7 hours of daily care.
In this brief Q&A, Candace Rennick, Secretary-Treasurer at CUPE Ontario and former long-term care worker, discusses the conditions in long-term care and the importance of the legislation.
CUPE is strongly advocating for the Time to Care Act. Why is it important to pass this legislation?
Candace Rennick: We need to give seniors in Ontario a guaranteed care standard to help enhance the quality of working and living conditions in long term care. Currently, there is no staffing standard, which means that the care levels are left up to the individual facilities to establish, and we know that in almost all of the cases across the province, staffing levels are dangerously low. Employers are not under obligation to replace workers who are sick or who are off from work, making conditions that much more untenable.
You worked in long-term care for 15 years (1995-2010). What was it like on the floor without a staffing standard?
CR: It’s difficult. The training you receive to get your certificate is nothing like what you experience when you walk through the doors of a facility. You hope to be able to provide dignified and loving care. But the reality is, you are rushed off your feet, providing only the bare minimum support and you’re running from resident to resident, just to meet their basic needs. So it’s incredibly challenging. The workloads are crushing and there is a feeling of incredible demoralization.
Why have successive governments been so reluctant to institute a care standard since the Mike Harris government removed it in 1996?
CR: I think funding is a major factor. Governments don’t want to spend money. But I also think that there is a lot of pressure from for-profit corporations who don’t want a care standard. They want the flexibility to be able to provide lower staffing levels, and I think governments have been heavily influenced by the for-profit lobby.
Residents and workers face shocking levels of violence in Ontario’s long-term care homes. A 2008 study found that Ontario homes have nearly seven times the violence compared to Scandinavian homes, with staffing levels being the major difference. Why is violence in Ontario’s long-term care system acceptable?
CR: I think in part it speaks to the devaluing of the lives of people living and working in long term care – the vast majority of whom are women. These conditions have been completely normalized and accepted. And people have come to expect that this is part of the job. It is not part of the job and it’s a real systemic change that we have to make.
Workers have a voice. There are over 100,000 people who work in homes across Ontario and they can make a major difference by taking action at this pivotal moment.
Candace Rennick, Secretary-Treasurer, CUPE Ontario
What can workers do to make sure the Time to Care Act passes on Wednesday?
CR: Workers have a voice. There are over 100,000 people who work in homes across Ontario and they can make a major difference by taking action at this pivotal moment.
We’re encouraging everyone to make a phone call or send an email to their MPP, especially if they have a Progressive Conservative representing them. They can visit the CUPE Ontario website and sign on to the e-action we have, sending a message directly to Premier Ford or the Ministers of Health and Long-term Care. They can talk to their family and their friends about doing the same. And generally, they can continue to be advocates for themselves and the residents.
Ontario is facing a PSW shortage right now. How do we ensure adequate staffing levels if we don’t even have enough workers?
CR: We need to stabilize the workforce by giving people access to well-paid, full-time jobs and ending reliance on part-time workers, which is causing people to hold multiple jobs and going from facility to facility just to provide for their families.
People need to have access to benefits and sick time so that they can stay at home when they’re sick and not have to go to work and expose vulnerable residents to illnesses.
We also need to ensure better wages and compensation packages, so that workers aren’t forced to work overtime and burn themselves out. This is meaningful work and workers deserve fair compensation.
So improving the conditions on the frontline by passing a law that will guarantee residents a staffing standard and stabilizing the workforce would be two important steps that must be taken right away.