Unfair Editorial

Adrian O'Connell | Feb 17, 2021

The editorial on Page 2 of last week's News accusing eastern Ontario wardens of a "lack of vision" is grossly unfair.

While Jeff Green is right to outline the anomalies surrounding the funding of retirement homes such as Pine Meadow in Northbrook, it is totally wrong to point the finger of blame at municipalities.

Municipal leaders recall being burned badly by the fiasco of amalgamation foisted on them by the Harris government in the late 1990s, and the promises of economy and efficiency which failed to materialize. They remember, too, the subsequent downloading of costs to their taxpayers which followed over the years, and, in the circumstances, are right to be leery of taking on extra demands and costs, especially when these emanate from outside their jurisdictions.

Mr. Green is correct in delineating the confusing boundaries between private, for profit and not-for-profit elder care institutions but this confusion was again fuelled by a deliberate policy by Mike Harris and his cabinet at the time, to open up these homes to the private, for-profit sector. The Pine Meadow Nursing Home exemplifies this in that the complex is owned by the not-for-profit Land o' Lakes Community Services but is managed by Extendicare Inc., the for-profit company now the subject of a class action following gross negligence revealed after scores of residents died at Orchard Villa, Scarborough and the Canadian Army had to be deployed.

The catastrophic results of this ideologically driven decision by Harris, have been evidenced in the past year by the appalling mortality rates during the first and second waves of the Covid 19 pandemic and Harris's ideological soulmate, Ontario Premier, Doug Ford, who shares Harris's for-profit ideology, has done very little to address this ongoing outrage.

In fact, despite repeated warnings and expert advice from many sources, Ford and his cronies have doggedly clung to this failed model and have even gone so far as to award an Order of Ontario recently to the architect of this inhumane and lethal system of elder care, namely, the self same Mike Harris (who still profits from his ties to the for-profit care system) and his successor, Ernie Eaves - all in the middle of a pandemic that has needlessly cost the lives of hundreds of our elderly: awards, which are truly an insult to the memory of the deceased as well as to their aggrieved families.

Yes, indeed, there is a "vision" problem here, but this can best be characterized as wilful blindness! Contrary to the aforesaid editorial, this dire situation has occurred, not due to any "lack of vision" on the part of municipal leaders - who are ill equipped to deal with such an enormous financial and logistical issue - but rather to a blind eye and a deaf ear on the part of both federal and provincial governments, having been turned repeatedly towards the welfare of our most vulnerable elderly citizens!

Adrian O'Connell