Health Committee on Nov. 4th, 2025

[Jodi Hall]

—for them to meet the quality of care that's expected in support of residents' quality of life, as well as issues with workload. The shortages have driven the use of agency nursing, and of course with that come challenges with appropriate cost and a variety of other things that need to be considered.

There are examples of best practice approaches to this coming into play. We see the provincial governments adding some direction or guidelines, and certainly as homes use agencies, we have encouraged homes to take a best practice approach by having a standard contract in place so that many of the challenges that we see in care delivery are addressed right up front.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Ms. Hall.

Now we go to the second round. That round is a five-minute round, beginning with Mr. Bailey for the Conservatives.

You have five minutes, please, Mr. Bailey.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Ms. Hall, thank you for joining us virtually today.

In a February 2025 briefing, your organization noted a shortage in long-term care staffing. It cites StatsCan reports of about 25,000 job vacancies in long-term care. Your recommendation includes ensuring that “health human resource planning has specific considerations for long-term care and is captured in the health workforce sectoral planning”.

With that in mind, did the federal department of immigration consult the Canadian Association for Long Term Care on this year's federal immigration plan, yes or no?

[Jodi Hall]

No, our organization wasn't consulted.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you.

Did the federal immigration department ask for any data on the current capacity of Canada's health care system?

[Jodi Hall]

No, but we have advocated with information.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

You would like to be consulted on these targets.

[Jodi Hall]

Yes.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Would you say that in the past 10 years the demand for long-term care has increased, and if so, why?

[Jodi Hall]

Absolutely, it has increased. I think we just need to look at the aging demographic of our population to understand that.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

StatsCan states that, in the last five years alone, from 2020 to 2025, over 75,000 people aged 65 and up immigrated to Canada. Given that these individuals are of retirement age, it's likely that many either will be or are already in long-term care.

Do you believe this level of intake of individuals at this age is plausible, requiring more resources in your sector? Is it sustainable?

[Jodi Hall]

When we look at the demand for long-term care going forward, we're looking at the numbers that are being provided by StatsCan for the Canadian population. I don't have a breakdown beyond that.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Does your organization support a standardized national licensure for health care professionals?

[Jodi Hall]

Yes, we do, especially as we consider foreign credential recognition. We feel that could be extremely helpful.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you.

Do you believe that Canada should integrate the roughly 81,000 foreign-trained health care professionals who are already in Canada before bringing in more individuals to work in our health care system?

[Jodi Hall]

We're extremely supportive of capitalizing on any available workforce.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

My colleague talked about bed blockers. In Alberta, there were 1,500 people in hospitals who were blocking beds, who should have been in long-term care homes. It was due to the fact that they didn't fill out their income tax.

Are you starting to advise your long-term care organizations that elderly people must fill out their taxes so that they qualify for provincial funding?

[Jodi Hall]

When someone is admitted to a long-term care home, that is when the role of the long-term care home comes into play.

Yes, they do work with families or act as trustees to ensure that taxes and other required forms are completed.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Is it a common practice that you will help individuals who are not capable of filling out their taxes so that they receive provincial benefits, as opposed to them becoming lost in the system?

[Jodi Hall]

That would be a common approach, although, with 13 different long-term care systems across the country, there may be variation in that approach in each jurisdiction. Support is often given to residents and families.

[Burton Bailey, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

I heard your comments on the temporary foreign worker program. My experience in my constituency is that we are bringing temporary foreign workers and promising them roles in nursing, but they end up not passing their qualification exams. They work in housekeeping and are extremely dissatisfied.

My understanding is that there were a lot of problems with the language exam that was being implemented from the United States. Now, that has since switched, and we have a Canadian exam.

Can you comment on promising these people jobs that they cannot attain?

[Jodi Hall]

First of all, we absolutely support and adhere to the ethical framework for recruitment of internationally educated nurses. Many come to work in long-term care homes as personal support workers, and then the homes themselves provide an additional amount of support to help them get through the foreign credential process of that jurisdiction. If there were more settlement dollars available to the long-term care homes, then I'm sure they could play a bigger role.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

We now go to the Liberals.

Mr. Powlowski, you have the floor for five minutes, please.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Ms. Hall, the Conservatives have suggested that part of the problem with long-term care is that we have all of these people who recently came to Canada as immigrants and refugees taking up beds in chronic care homes. Is this the case?

I certainly don't get the impression that there are a lot of people who just came over from India, the Philippines or Afghanistan in the last couple of years who.... We don't take a lot of elderly immigrants. Those we do, my guess is that their families have brought them over so they could be with them, not to put them in chronic care homes.

Are we overburdened with recent immigrants taking up chronic care beds?

[Jodi Hall]

The numbers that we would be referring to are numbers produced by StatsCan and by provincial governments. No breakdown is provided regarding newcomers in long-term care or waiting to come to long-term care homes.