Thank you very much, Madam Chair and committee members.
It's a privilege to be here with you today, as per Mr. Lee's comments, on the day following Remembrance Day, when we recognize so many of our residents.
We are grateful to the committee for recognizing the importance of ensuring that voting privileges are available to residents of Canada’s long-term care homes during this pandemic. To set the context for today’s discussion, I would like to provide an overview of Ontario’s long-term care homes.
More than 79,000 people live in long-term care in Ontario in 626 homes, with more than half of our residents being over the age of 85. Approximately one resident in six is younger than 75.
In Ontario, we have stringent criteria for admission into long-term care. Most people are not eligible until they are experiencing significant impairment due to physical frailty and/or cognitive impairment. Ninety per cent of residents have some degree of cognitive impairment, ranging from mild to severe, caused by conditions such as dementia or stroke.
In prior elections, it has been common practice to establish polling booths in the lobbies or other common areas of long-term care homes to enable the resident population to vote, as well as the neighbouring community members. This is not possible during COVID -19 due to Ontario restrictions around access to long-term care homes and the extreme vulnerability of our residents to outbreaks of COVID–19. In most cases, as per Mr. Lee's comments, escorting residents from long-term care homes to voting booths elsewhere is also not possible due to a number of different factors.
First, under our provincial directives and now-evolving regional directives, non-medical absences from the home are not possible at all during an outbreak or in a region that is considered at high risk or a hot zone for community transmission. As of November 10, 15% of Ontario’s homes are in COVID outbreak. Several major urban areas remain areas of higher risk and outings are not permitted.
Second, if neither of those factors is in place, non-medical absences need to be approved by the home based on a case-by-case risk assessment, recognizing the risk to our residents is extremely high and we do not recommend absences.
Third, if an outing is approved, most homes do not have the staffing capacity or support to take residents out of the home to vote. While some residents may have families that can assist, many residents do not have these supports readily available and would be reliant on staff for transportation to the voting site. Our long-term care homes are experiencing a critical staffing shortage that predated COVID and has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. This has implications for staffing capacity to support resident voting either in or outside of the home.
Despite the challenges of COVID, it is vitally important to ensure that voting privileges are available to residents of long-term care. Mail-in ballots may be the simplest option for residents to manage and for staff to facilitate, as per Mr. Lee's comments. We are open to discussions on processes that could facilitate that. There may be other options the committee is considering, including electronic voting in the homes. We'd be pleased to bring that back to our members for review and feedback to support successful implementation.
We are committed to helping our residents exercise their right to vote.
We would again really like to thank you for recognizing the importance of this issue and exploring solutions during the pandemic.
Thank you.