The Issue Before UsAs a society we have a social duty of care to our seniors and for those who work as caregivers. We have a duty to correct the situation in long-term care that left so many warehoused, lacking adequate standards of care and vulnerable to a virus that ultimately claimed their lives.
Today, one of the demands of caregivers and seniors' advocacy organizations is for an end to for-profit delivery of this essential service. It has been shown beyond any doubt that those who reap profit from long-term care put their narrow interests ahead of the well-being and lives of our seniors. These long-term care monopolies are paid from the public purse for every licensed bed. They are subsidized with public funds, to open new beds or refurbish existing facilities. Homes owned by these monopolies were most likely to have cramped living conditions with up to four residents to a room, a significant factor in the spread of COVID-19. These monopolies have refused to upgrade their facilities to comply with standards put in place 22 years ago, and have been exempted from compliance. Now the government will pay them to comply. In July, for example, the Ontario government allocated another $1.75 billion over the next five years to expand and refurbish long-term care operations. The bulk of funding, which will be made retroactive to projects dating back to 2018, will go to these very same for-profit monopolies where so many seniors died. It is unconscionable. The essence of neo-liberalism is that society is organized to pay the rich. That's what led to privatization of public services like long-term care, abandoning standards of care and lowering the wages, working and living conditions of caregivers. That's what gave rise to legislation like Bill 124 which imposes a three-year wage freeze on public employees, Bill 195 which overrides collective agreements of frontline health care workers -- all this and more is done in order that society pay the rich. A new direction is needed for society. We owe it to our seniors, our youth, ourselves. The issue before us is to Stop Paying the Rich!
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
The
overwhelming majority of deaths occurred in for-profit homes operated
by large monopolies in the long-term care "business." It was already
known that the neo-liberal agenda of privatization, cuts to funding,
understaffing and unsustainable workloads, wages and working
conditions set the stage for a disaster. That reality was covered
up with a hoax perpetrated by successive governments that conditions
were being
appropriately monitored. The situation in long-term care had been
detailed in government sponsored studies, inquest findings, reports by
organizations of frontline caregivers and more, all of which were
ignored.