August 31, 2022
Bill 7 is a scheme to bully people into LTC homes they don’t want to go to
Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas released the following statement in response to the passage of Bill 7, Doug Ford’s legislation forcing people waiting in hospitals to move to a long-term care home they don’t want to go to:
“I cannot tell you how upsetting it is to see Bill 7 pass third reading. This bill that will take away the rights of frail, elderly people to consent to treatment. This is a right that we all have. When dealing with a health professional you always have a right to consent or the right not to consent; under this bill, frail, elderly people don’t matter, their consent doesn’t matter.
If Mr. Ford really wanted to fix hallways healthcare, he could fix homecare immediately by ensuring home care providers provide 70% permanent, full-time jobs, well paid with benefits, sick time and a pension plan, and problem solved. Tens of thousands of PSWs will come back to do what they like to do, to do what they’re good at doing, caring for people at home.
Unfortunately, the government doesn’t want to listen to any of this. The government wants to send elderly people away from their families. In the north, it will be hundreds of kilometres away to a for profit home that hasn’t been renovated in 50 years, with one bathroom per floor; how can the government vote in favour of this?
This decision is inhumane. It’s never too late to tear up this bad legislation and save families the pain of having their loved ones forced into long-term care homes they don’t want to go to.”