We remain deeply concerned about the overall scope and impact of Bill C-295 as presented. We feel that many of these challenges are already addressed within provincial legislation and within the Criminal Code as it exists today.
Certainly moving away from this legislation would be our first choice. Second to that, if the committee is putting this bill through, we would ask that they reconsider the definition of “manager”, in that it's specific only to the long-term care manager, as well as the definition of “long-term care facility”. We would recommend that they apply more broadly across the health care system.
For us, when we consider that the intent of this bill is to address elder abuse and that very similar staff would be providing very similar care in a hospital setting, for example, why would this legislation only target elder abuse that would be present in a long-term care environment and not in a hospital setting?
As for recommendations for amendments, it would be to focus on those areas and broaden out the setting and the professionals that the bill would apply to.