I had the pleasure of attending the Elder Law Day: A Conference for Representing Seniors last week which was offered by the Canadian Bar Association. I was very fortunate to hear from the leading experts in the legal field who discussed problems impacting our aging population. I would like to highlight a presentation by Graham Webb of the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE) which was on the Fixing of the Long-Term Care Act (FLTCA) enacted on April 11, 2022.  FLTCA seeks to regulate Ontario’s long-term care sector. The FLTCA renounced and replaced the Long-Term Care Act of 2007. The fundamental principle of the Act is that long-term care homes are primarily home to their residents and should be operated to allow residents to maintain their dignity. The FLTCA was updated to address the negative effect of COVID-19 on its residents.  Specifically, two new resident rights were added to the Resident Bill of Rights due to residents no longer being allowed to see visitors or access palliative care:

20. Every resident has a right to ongoing and safe support from their caregivers to support their physical, mental, social and emotional wellbeing and their quality of life and to assistance in contacting a caregiver or other person to support their needs;

21. Every resident has the right to be provided with care and services based on a palliative care philosophy.

These updates seek to rectify the challenges faced by residents in long-term care homes. Residents will now receive direct care for four hours per day by March 31, 2025. To start off residents will receive three hours of care by March 31, 2022; and this will increase by 15-18 minutes each day until March 31, 2025. As noted in a previous blog by Natalia Angelini this upholds Ontario’s budget to increase care to residents to 4 hours a day.

To further increase accountability of long-term care homes and display their commitment to the residents, maximum fines for provincial offences against residents will be doubled under the FLTCA:

• For individuals ($200,000 for first offence, $400,000 for second offence);
• For corporations ($500,000 for first offence, $1,000,000 for second offence);
• For board members (for-profit licensees: $200,000 for first offence, $400,000 for second offence; not-for-profit licensees: $4,000)

We will be following the progress and implementation of the FLTCA in its efforts to improve the lives of residents.

Thanks for reading and have a great day,

Aanchal Bajaj