Thank you.
It is certainly a very unfortunate situation. I have every confidence that when individuals go to work in long-term care their expectation, their need, is to support residents. I think that what is happening, unfortunately—and you see some similarities in Ontario—is the inability to get the work done in this COVID environment.
What COVID has taught us is that there are staffing issues. If we do not have the staff, then we cannot provide the right care to our residents or those who are living in the homes. If we do not have the funding, then we cannot train our staff to be prepared for a COVID pandemic such as what we've experienced.
I do believe that, through the province and through the federal government, there will be improvements. This is a systemic issue. It is not an issue that has just arisen today. It's a systemic issue. I believe that, through the federal government, there should be a component of long-term care as a national act, so that there is more oversight.
I have to say that I also believe that while we go in and improve the situation in this emergency, there are also long-term improvements that must be made. I'll go back to emotional care. It is not necessarily about making things more “command and control” through legislation, but about ensuring that legislation also involves emotional care, a different type of expectation for our staff in long-term care and one so that they too will thrive, one where staff will enjoy coming to work and supporting those residents they care for.
Those are some of the things. It is about staffing. It is about funding. It is about getting the feds to support, but certainly it is long-standing, and a lot of work needs to be done that is not—I'm going to say it again before I get closed—about the command and control. It is about how we support our residents and our staff in an emotional-based culture.