Mr. Speaker, my colleague from South Okanagan—West Kootenay talked about Chinese state-owned Anbang taking over Retirement Concepts and the Liberal government rubber-stamping that sale.
We saw the deterioration of service in retirement homes in my riding of Courtenay, and evidence is clear that across Canada that, even before the pandemic, for-profit long-term care homes led to worse outcomes for residents and staff alike. The pandemic has made the differences even clearer. Companies operating for-profit care homes across Canada made hundreds of millions of dollars this year and paid them out to shareholders, even to state-owned companies.
Does my colleague not agree that every single one of those dollars could and should have gone to improving care and making residents and staff safer in communities like the ones I represent. Parksville and Qualicum have the highest median age in the country and there are lots of private care homes. Does my colleague not agree that money should be there improving care and making residents and their staff safer?