By Pepper Parr
September 7th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
We have now heard from the new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing – he used to be the Minister of Long Term Care.
New Minister – Paul Calandra – During his media event yesterday – no one asked a question about how well he did at Long Term Care. Coroner’s report suggests he did a terrible job.
How well did he do at that job.
Leader of the Opposition Marit Stiles wasn’t impressed and shared the following:
The Ford government failed Ontario’s seniors during the pandemic; the latest Ombudsman report confirms, finding that Ontario’s Long-Term Care inspection system “collapsed during the deadly first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
MPP Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls riding), NDP critic for Long-Term Care (LTC), released the following statement:
“Ford’s absolute failure to protect seniors during the pandemic contributed to an unconscionable wave of deaths in Long-Term Care. Today, we learned that many of these deaths were preventable.
“The safeguards meant to protect seniors failed entirely. Under this government’s watch, inspectors did little or nothing to hold these homes accountable. And thousands of our friends, parents and grandparents died.
“Make no mistake – the Ford Conservatives axed the level of LTC inspections when they took office, leaving the system already strained when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. They failed to respond to the clear crisis with the appropriate level of urgency and commitment. They also passed legislation to protect LTC operators from facing consequences.”
Paul Calandra was the Long Term Care Minister at the time.
The Ombudsman found that 4335 residents and 13 LTC staff died between March 2020 and April 2022.
Read the Ombudsman’s report on LTC here.
The Ombudsman’s report found that the Ministry of Long-Term Care:
During this crisis, Ford passed the LTC file like a hot potato from Merrilee Fullerton to Rod Phillips, and finally to Paul Calandra (who has just been promoted to Housing Minister). None of them were able to work on serious solutions.
A quick peak at how Calandra was depicted by media:
Paul Calandra as the new Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs – a critically important file in the middle of a housing crisis with little in the way of relevant experience other than being infamous for misdirection.
Calandra’s qualifications as deflector-in-chief include:
- In 2012, he was Stephen Harper’s shield from the Senate Scandal (Calandra’s non-answers gained so much notoriety they inspired a joke generator of meaningless talking points)
- In 2014, he refused to answer so many questions about Canada’s involvement in Iraq, the Globe and Mail’s exasperated response was: “to call Mr. Calandra a clown is to do a disservice to the ancient profession of painted-face buffoonery”
- In 2015, CBC’s Peter Mansbridge coined Calandra’s non-answers as ‘The Full Calandra’, following an interview about Mike Duffy’s trial
VK you are absolutely right. What’s more our files show what has been going on in Halton LTCs including the one run by the Region has been totally unacceptable esince 1995 along with what is going on in Halton hospitals. The Ontario Chief Coroner Office supports every death that occurs there is a natural death and do not get an inquest, never mind a public inquiry. 98 died in an outbreak of bacterial infectious disease where the legislation was ignored and then when they could not keep it hidden any longer claim they did not know they had an outbreak when the evidence is they did and the OCCO knows they did.
We are seeking those like ourselves who will not rest until these unacceptable practices that affect our elderly are exposed and stopped. Hoping the Region facilitators are going to be open to looking at what is wrong with Halton Healthcare that Region Council is happy sweeping under the carpet rather than deal with it.
These are the counted deaths within a constrained window. This situation definitely will have contributed to all kinds of health issues and fatalities beyond those officially attributed to Covid as the cause is tightly circumscribed.
The mortality is still high, people are suffering & confined beyond what we would accept by in international law for isolation in prison. Add to that the utter anguish of families and staff. It is an absolute tragedy and utterly unacceptable.