Absolutely, yes. COVID has highlighted what has already been true in the public versus private. I can tell you that from the Toronto, Ontario experience, our councillors voted I think unanimously to put the additional funding into the municipally run homes, as an example, to come up to the four hours of direct care per day. That is one of the reasons municipally run homes are usually run very well in comparison to for-profit homes.
Again, speaking of the Ontario example, although I know this is true in other provinces, the funding structures are different, but the funding that comes from taxpayers that goes to care is not the portion of funding that for-profit homes are allowed to derive a profit from. It is the portion of funding that is to go to hospitality that is the portion where for-profit companies are allowed to derive a profit.
In this pandemic we saw that older homes with four persons per room—we call them ward-style homes—are the ones that had some of the worst outbreaks. It is not a coincidence that most of those homes are owned by for-profit companies. They were the only parties willing to buy these old buildings and turn them into long-term care homes. They didn't have to do anything to get people in them because our wait-lists are so exorbitantly long. They did not use the hospitality funds or profits to modernize the homes and make them safer for residents. Instead, they mortgaged these properties to the hilt, and paid out dividends to shareholders.
I think it's pretty clear where you can see I stand on these issues. Profit has no place in care, and I take that from the final report of the long-term care commission in Ontario that was just released on April 30 by Justice Marrocco.
We've seen some issues across the board, but the evidence is very clear that the for-profit homes have the worst care, for the most part.