The Canadian Association for Long Term Care (CALTC) was on Parliament Hill this week meeting with Members of Parliament, Senators and members of the civil service to call for the federal government to help resolve systemic staffing shortages, update outdated infrastructure and increase funding to support seniors living in long term care homes across the country.
“While long term care isn’t as prominent in the headlines as it was a year ago, homes across the country continue to face significant challenges,” said CALTC CEO Jodi Hall. “Homes continue to need targeted support. The federal government has an important role to play to address these issues.”
During these meetings in Ottawa, CALTC is advocating for a number of solutions to address the health workforce challenges, including:
- Funding to ensure data collection infrastructure is enhanced so the sector has a clearer picture into both staffing and resident needs.
- Making it easier for long term care homes to recruit internationally educated health care workers.
- A strategy for domestic workforce development that meets long term care’s labour needs.
In addition, CALTC is calling on the federal government to extend the GST rebates being offered to home developers to any new long term care development. With significant inflationary cost pressures on long term care development, CALTC is confident that this step would help get homes built faster.
“During the last election this government made the largest commitment to long-term care funding in Canada’s history, promising $9 billion over 5 years,” said Hall. “It is critical that this funding is made available to long term care homes to deliver higher quality care, make critical infrastructure upgrades, hire new staff, improve food and nutrition options and invest in wide-ranging care and operational improvements including health data collection.”
