Mr. Speaker, I rise today to propose an emergency debate on the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and long-term care facilities.
I am deeply saddened to report that long-term care homes across Canada are once again being ravaged by COVID-19, despite the promises made by the government in response to the carnage of the first wave. Indeed, Canada utterly failed to protect vulnerable long-term care residents and workers during the initial outbreak of COVID-19. More than 840 outbreaks were reported in long-term care facilities and retirement homes across Canada, accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 deaths in this country, as of May 2020. This represents the worst record among all comparable nations.
The situation was so dire that the Canadian Armed Forces had to be called in. Residents were found underfed, abandoned and afraid. In some cases they were left to die alone in bed, covered in their own waste. These stories shocked our conscience and challenged our self-image as a compassionate and humane society. However, they were entirely foreseeable.
Experts and advocates had been raising the same concerns for many years, but successive governments failed to act. In fact, decades of research have demonstrated that insufficient staff-to-resident ratios and a reliance on part-time casual staff have led to hurried, dehumanizing care, high staff turnover and workforce instability in the long-term care sector all across Canada.
In its fall throne speech, the federal government pledged to, “Work with the provinces and territories to set new, national standards for long-term care so that seniors get the best [care] possible”. However, no meaningful action has been taken by the current federal government to date. As a result, Canadians living in long-term care are once again bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ryerson University's National Institute on Aging estimates that there have now been 1,976 long-term care facilities and retirement homes affected by COVID-19 outbreaks. This has resulted in the deaths of 9,355 residents and 16 staff, accounting for 74% of all COVID-19 deaths in Canada to date. Outbreaks continue to surge in long-term care facilities across Canada.
As of Friday, a total of 90 residents at Extendicare Parkside in Regina had tested positive for COVID-19, alongside 34 staff members. Toronto's Westside Long Term Care Home confirmed an outbreak at the facility on November 12, and since that time a total of 117 infections have been confirmed among residents, and 57 cases have been reported among staff. This is an urgent situation, demanding immediate action.
This pandemic has exposed a fragmented and under-resourced long-term care system across Canada that is heavily reliant on for-profit delivery. According to a recent analysis by the Toronto Star, residents of Ontario's for-profit long-term care homes are still experiencing significantly worse outcomes in the second wave of COVID-19, both in terms of infections and deaths, than those living in municipal or non-profit facilities. Residents in for-profit homes have been more than three times as likely to catch COVID-19 as those in a non-profit facility. For-profits have seen more than twice as many staff infections per bed, and resident deaths have been significantly more common.
Indeed, today we learned that two of the largest long-term care providers in the Toronto region, Extendicare and Sienna Senior Living, received more than $157 million in federal and provincial COVID-19 relief, while at the same time paying out $74 million in dividends to shareholders this year. Meanwhile, more than 480 residents and staff have died at those companies' facilities from COVID-19.
Federal leadership is urgently needed to implement a coordinated approach to protect vulnerable Canadians living in long-term care homes, both throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and in the years to come. Families are incredibly worried about their loved ones. They need concrete action now.
With the House adjourning soon, with the second wave of the pandemic raging and showing no signs of abating, and with provinces and territories increasing the measures they are demanding from their citizens because they see the COVID-19 pandemic increasing, it is essential that MPs have the opportunity to debate this crucial issue as soon as possible.
It is almost mid-December. We are going to be breaking until the end of January. We are in the middle of the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, and it is worse than the first. We know that deaths have occurred and are likely to occur in very high percentages in our long-term care homes. While the government promised action in the throne speech, we have seen no action. There is not a single national standard yet that has been—