Jagmeet Singh calls for end to for-profit LTC homes at St. George centre rally
Posted January 10, 2021 3:09 pm.
Last Updated January 10, 2021 5:52 pm.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says it’s time to end for-profit long-term care homes in Ontario.
Singh made the comments Sunday afternoon during a rally outside of Toronto’s St. George Community Care Centre, a private, for-profit long-term care home owned by Sienna Living.
The facility is currently being managed by the University Health Network (UHN) under a temporary voluntary management contract to deal with an outbreak of COVID-19 — reported to be the largest in the province in an LTC setting last week.
Related:
Annex LTC home dealing with province’s largest COVID-19 outbreak
The NDP Leader said the federal government has to be proactive when it comes to COVID-19 outbreaks in homes — including deploying military help if necessary.
“We can’t just react when a problem occurs, we can’t just react when there’s an increase in infection rate, we have to be proactive,” he said. “One of the key steps that everyone agrees [is] that profit is clearly resulting in horrible conditions for seniors and we can’t allow that to continue.”
The St. George facility, located at 225 St. George Street, houses 140 residents. According to a release by UHN, 97 of them have had COVID-19 at some point during the outbreak.
Those patients have now recovered and there are currently 29 active cases of COVID-19 at the facility. The Ontario government has reported 14 COVID-19 related resident deaths at the facility.
NDP leader @theJagmeetSingh speaking outside of St. George Care Community calling for an end to for-profit LTC @680NEWS @CityNews pic.twitter.com/4u2XGjdCPU
— Michelle Mackey (@michellemackey) January 10, 2021
NOTE: An earlier version of this story said the facility had 45 active cases, based on a news release by UHN. Data has since been updated and the number has been corrected to 29.
