July 15, 2021 - Toronto Star

‘Devastating to watch': Private long-term-care homes have seen some of Ontario’s worst death rates – but Doug Ford’s new funding set them up for decades of profits

By: Richard Warnica

Most of the for-profit companies wanted the government to hike redevelopment funding to make it easier, and more lucrative, to rebuild the aging homes that were worst hit by the pandemic. They also wanted the government to allocate new beds, fast, so they could lock in new operating contracts before many of the existing deals expired in 2025.

And what the government did, beginning last summer, before the deadly second wave even began, was say yes, to basically all of it. “They significantly sweetened the pot,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Policy Research. They offered upfront funding, “which was far more generous than what they’d ever given before,” Sinha said. They also dolled out new beds at an unprecedented rate. “People flooded in all these applications, boom, boom, boom, to get in on this,” Sinha said. The homes “were being given more money and more incentives than ever before to get in this space.”