Take profit out of Long Term Care

Hospitals are short term care and 95% of Canadian hospitals operate on a non-profit basis. So why are we happy with for-profit Long Term Care? Why is the idea of profiting from the sick repulsive but allowing the corporate and political elite to rake in millions from poorly run, understaffed LTCs OK?



As of June 2020 5% of for-profit LTC residents died from Covid 19 in Ontario compared to 3% in non-profit homes and 1.1% in municipal homes. A CBC Marketplace report shows that decades long delays in safety upgrades are a major factor in the spread of this disease. The case for eliminating profits from LTC is clear.


What do the Liberals and Conservatives think? No way! Last week they voted down an NDP motion to take the word “profit” out of Long Term Care. So here is our first campaign promise.


NDP plan to fix the system in the long term

  • We need a government on the side of seniors, their families, and frontline health care workers – instead of on the side of wealthy investors

  • New Democrats are going to fix this broken long-term care system. We have a plan to implement a Care Guarantee:

    • A promise to seniors that they will have safe, dignified care – both at home and in care homes – available to them as they age.

    • A promise to families that they will know their loved ones will have the care they deserve with inspections, and appropriate levels of care and staff ratios.

    • A promise to workers who care for them that they will get a living wage, benefits, and the safe and secure jobs that they deserve.

  • We can achieve this by:

    • Taking profit out of long-term care.

    • Working collaboratively with patients, caregivers, and provincial and territorial governments to develop national care standards for long-term care and other continuing care that would include accountability mechanisms and data collection and that would be tied and backed by adequate and stable funding. We plan to invest an additional $5 billion in long-term care systems across the country within a first mandate and we have committed to increase the Health Transfer.

    • Regulating long-term care and home care with the same principles of the Canada Health Act.

    • Improving working conditions for workers in the long-term care sector, as work conditions directly affect care conditions.

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