COVID-19: Public Inquiry into Long-Term Care

Canada’s long-term care homes are ground zero when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic – claiming the dubious distinction of having the highest number of COVID cases in long term care in an early study of the pandemic.

Here in Ontario, a two-week spike in the number of cases. The grim toll has sparked calls to get to the bottom of the carnage. While everyone at Queen’s Park is on the same page when it comes to helping people in the pandemic, it appears the search for truth when it comes to ground zero is being swallowed up by politics. The Ontario government has announced a commission will look at why long-term care homes were not beds of infection. But that doesn’t go far enough to some. Opposition leader and Hamilton Centre MPP, Andrea Horwath put forward a motion this week calling for an inquiry but it was voted down in the legislature.

The leader of the Ontario NDP joins us today to talk about long-term care and how the Ontario Government is monitoring these facilities.