For Immediate Release
November 4, 2021
Queen’s Park – In today’s Fall Economic Statement the Ontario Government laid out a plan to build a health and long-term care system that delivers the quality of care Ontarians deserve.
To strengthen the health and long-term care workforce, Ontario is investing $342 million, beginning in 2021–22, to add over 5,000 new and upskilled registered nurses and registered practical nurses as well as 8,000 personal support workers. In addition, Ontario is investing $57.6 million, beginning in 2022–23, to hire 225 nurse practitioners in the long-term care sector.
To support the mental health and well-being of health and long-term care workers across the province, the government is investing $12.4 million over two years starting in 2021–22 to continue rapid access to existing and expanded mental health and addictions supports.
Further, to ensure long-term care resident safety, the government is providing an additional $72.3 million over three years to increase enforcement capacity including doubling the number of inspectors across the province by 2022–23. This will make Ontario’s inspections to long-term care homes ratio the highest in Canada.
“We will continue to address decades of neglect by previous governments and help those waiting to get into long-term care,” Barrett said. “An additional $3.7 billion will be spent to build an additional 10,000 new long-term care beds beginning in 2024–25. We will also upgrade 12,000 existing beds to modern standards.” Barrett explained this would bring total investment to $6.4 billion since spring 2019 — a historic investment that will lead to more than 30,000 net new beds by 2028 and about 28,000 upgraded long-term care beds across the province.
To support growing demands on the health care system, Ontario is investing $30.2 billion over the next 10 years to build, expand and enhance hospitals, a historic commitment to ensure people can get the care they need in their communities.
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For more information, please contact MPP Toby Barrett at 519-428-0446, 905-765-8413