I do think we need national standards, but as I said, the standards mean nothing if there is not enforcement and monitoring of those standards, so how is that meaningful? They have to be measurable, and there need to be consequences for noncompliance. Whether that is achieved by the mechanism the federal government already uses in health transfers—surgical wait-lists have to be managed a certain way, and provinces are not allowed to extra bill—would lead to financial penalties in the transfer payments from the federal government.
Those are levers that are available for the federal government to use that could push the provinces to demand better accountability from their care homes, whether they're operating them publicly or whether they've contracted with a private operator to operate them. I can't understate the importance of openness and transparency. The public wants this. They will drive this, and if it is known who's meeting standards and who's not, and where the money is going, I think the federal government will have the support of its citizenry.