Ford government passes motion to skip public hearings on long-term care legislation

The provincial government took a major step today to push its controversial long-term care bill through the legislature.

Government MPPs stood in the legislature one by one to approve a fast-track for their long-term care bill. The motion allows the government to send Bill 7 to final reading this week, less than two weeks after it was introduced.

Bill 7 is an effort to get certain patients who don’t need an acute care bed out of hospitals and into long-term care. Critics call it coercion of seniors.

One of the main concerns is that Bill 7 could force seniors into long-term care far from their families.

The government’s own explanation of Bill 7 admits that it “authorizes certain actions to be carried out without the consent of these patients.” It says only that the government must make “reasonable efforts to obtain the patient’s consent.”

Critics say vulnerable patients may be intimidated by the process. There’s concern they’ll be threatened with massive hospital fees which could be up to $1,500 a day if they refuse to move.

“Welcome to Doug Ford’s Ontario where you can move vulnerable, frail patients near the end of their lives to a place that’s farther away from their families. Where the threat of a large hospital bill, it’s ok to use that to coerce patients and their families to do something that may not be in their best interest. This bill is wrong. It should be withdrawn,” Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser said.

Opposition MPPs say the government is showing disrespect for democracy and vulnerable seniors. “What are we doing? Why are we not respecting our seniors?,” NDP long-term care critic Wayne Gates said.

Premier Doug Ford’s comments were limited, saying he’s trying to fix a problem left over from past governments.

“These are the problems decades in the making they were created, created by the NDP and liberals,” Ford said.

The details of how the legislation will be applied are still not clear and the legislation is expected to become law by the end of the week.