Ontario government reaches its goal for inspector hires

DAN CEARNS, The Standard

DURHAM/KAWARTHA: The Ontario government has added a number of new long-term care home inspectors.

At a press conference in Oshawa on Friday, February 24th, Long-Term Care Minister Paul Calandra provided an update on one of his government’s promises.

“After decades of inaction from previous governments, our province was left with an underfunded and neglected long-term care system, a system that needed to be fixed. That’s why our government launched an ambitious plan to do just that, fix Ontario’s long-term care system. As part of that plan, our government committed to doubling the number of long-term care inspectors in the province, and I’m here today to announce we have delivered on that promise.”

An Ontario government press release states they have “hired 193 new long-term care inspection staff, including 156 new inspectors.”

When discussing the importance of this announcement, Minister Calandra said these new hires “will help strengthen what is already Canada’s toughest inspection and enforcement regime.”

“Ontario now leads all provinces with the highest inspector-to-home ratio in the country, surpassing our goal of having one inspector for every two homes in the province,” Minister Calandra added.