Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you, General Fortin and General Misener, for being with us today. I'd like to extend my thanks, on behalf of my community and my caucus, for your service, particularly at this critical time during COVID-19 as you help Canada fight COVID-19 through vaccinations, through Operation Laser and through a number of different ways. Thank you for that, and please pass that along to your teams as well, if you would.
I'd like to return to an issue that is close to my heart, close to many people in my community and I think close to many Canadians. That's the issue of long-term care. I'll direct my question to General Misener first.
In Etobicoke Centre, the community I represent, we lost 42 residents to COVID-19 at the Eatonville long-term care centre. This is one of the homes where Canadian Armed Forces personnel served in the spring. First of all, I'd like to once again extend my thanks to the armed forces for serving in all of the long-term care homes that personnel served in, but particularly those CAF members who cared for and saved the lives of constituents in my community in Etobicoke Centre. I'd also like to thank the CAF for preparing the report that was made public and that described horrific and abusive conditions at a number of long-term care homes where they were posted. I think that report is important, because it enabled awareness that led to advocacy and the federal government committing to national standards for long-term care. When implemented, those will make a difference for generations of seniors.
The current situation, however, is dire. Despite the above service that I talked about, despite the attention that was given to long-term care during the first wave, not enough was done—I'll speak about the context in Ontario—to learn the lessons from the first wave of the pandemic and protect our seniors during the second wave of COVID-19. In Ontario right now, approximately 256 long-term care homes, which is 41% of all long-term care homes in the province, are in outbreak. In Ontario, public health authorities project that more residents are projected to die of COVID-19 in the second wave of the pandemic than in the first.
To me, this is beyond reprehensible. The lack of action to protect our seniors in long-term care in the second wave, given what we knew from the first wave, is beyond reprehensible. Of course, it's also disappointing to me that the Ontario government has refused to work with the federal government and other provinces on national standards for long-term care. To me, this is the only way to ensure that, over the long term, seniors in long-term care get the care they deserve and we address the issues that were raised in the report prepared by the Canadian Armed Forces.
To your knowledge, General Misener, has the Ontario government requested assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces to help in long-term care during the second wave of the pandemic?