Almonte citizens ‘flabbergasted’ by proposed Long Term Care Homes Act
Tuesday, November 28, 2006 Natalie Miller
While working at the community’s second-hand store, an Almonte citizen takes the liberty to discuss a current advocacy campaign geared at saving one of the small town’s nursing homes.

When Mary Hurry explains what the Province’s proposed Long Term Care Homes Act is about and how it could impact Almonte Country Haven, people “were a little flabbergasted,” she says.

“The community has put a lot into the nursing home,” says Mary.

“They’re very proud of it.”

Mary is taking an active role in the Ontario Long Term Care Association’s current campaign that takes issue with the government’s proposed Act. Critics of the Act say it threatens the future of older long-term care homes because it puts a 10-year deadline on nursing home’s operating licences and provide no plan for what happens before or after that. After seven years government can decide to do anything it wants with the older homes, including close them and move the beds to another community, the OLTCA says.

With no funding commitment for the structural renewal of older homes, current and future residents will face uncertainty for the next decade. About 35,000 nursing home residents live in older homes and would be impacted by the new Act, if passed.

A ray of hope however came in the form of a Private Member’s motion Nov. 23. All three provincial political parties voted unanimously in the legislature in favour of the motion by Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Elizabeth Witmer calling on government to commit to a plan of action to invest in the upgrading of older B and C classified long-term care homes.

Mary, who visits a resident three times a week at Almonte Country Haven, says she felt compelled to become involved in the campaign. “I feel strongly about the home. The home is such a friendly and lovely place.”

“You could speak to anyone in the town. They find it pleasant and so clean and the staff are so wonderful.”

Mary says even if Almonte was to upgrade the nursing home to meet more modern standards there’s no guarantee, at this point, the government wouldn’t close the home. “They could go ahead with the changes but there’s no guarantee it would remain open.”
The Almonte community has delivered about 1,000 postcards to the local MPP that voice objections about the Act.

OLTCA Executive Director Karen Sullivan expressed her appreciation for the three parties support on the issue that is the crux of the campaign.

“We believe they will welcome this unanimous support from all parties and will now look forward to government announcing and implementing an effective capital renewal program for their B and C home,” she says in a news release.