Madam Speaker, in politics, it is imperative to speak truth to power. This is especially the case when matters of life and death are involved.
Today, I rise to speak this truth. Canada has utterly failed to protect vulnerable long-term care residents and workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and this failure has cost the lives of thousands of Canadians.
According to the National Institute on Aging, 2,611 long-term care facilities and retirement homes across Canada have been ravaged by COVID-19 outbreaks. This has led to the deaths of 14,802 residents and 27 workers, representing 67% of all COVID-19 deaths in Canada to date. This is the worst record of any nation in the OECD. Worse, successive governments allowed this to happen with eyes wide open. Despite repeated warnings, we did not act in time to prevent or meaningfully abate this humanitarian disaster.
During the first wave of this pandemic, 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 the country in the first six months. Again, this represented the worst record among all comparable nations and double the OECD average.
The situation was so dire that the Canadian Armed Forces had to be called in, and what they found was appalling. Residents were discovered underfed, abandoned and afraid. In some cases, they had been left to die alone in bed covered in their own urine and feces. These stories shocked our conscience and challenged our self-image as a compassionate and humane society. However, the shock quickly turned to outrage as Canadians learned that for-profit operators were paying out millions of dollars in dividends to their shareholders, while accepting public subsidies and neglecting the residents under their care.
Last fall, as Canada sat on the crest of a second wave of COVID-19, the federal government pledged to “work with the provinces and territories to set new, national standards for long-term care.” It also pledged to bring in “Criminal Code amendments to explicitly penalize those who neglect seniors under their care.”
Unfortunately, it has failed to make any meaningful progress on these commitments to date. As a result, the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be even deadlier than the first for long-term care and retirement home residents. In total, 7,470 residents succumbed to COVID-19 throughout the recent resurgence compared to 7,022 deaths during the first wave.
As Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, recently noted:
I think the tragedy and the massive lesson learned for everyone in Canada is that we were at every level, not able to protec our seniors, particularly those in long-term care homes. Even worse is that in that second wave, as we [were] warned of the resurgence, there was a repeat of the huge impact on that population.
There is simply no excuse for our country's repeated failure to act. This carnage was entirely foreseeable and avoidable. We must ensure this never happens again. If we cannot come together now to address the systemic deficiencies in Canada's long-term care system, when will we ever? COVID-19 has laid bare a fragmented and under-resourced long-term care system across Canada that is heavily reliant on for-profit—