Question Period Note: Safe Long-Term Care Act

• The pandemic disproportionately affected Canadians living in long-term care homes. Canadians are concerned about the availability of safe, high-quality long-term care services.

• Every senior in Canada deserves to live in dignity, safety, and comfort, regardless of where they live.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted long-standing and systemic challenges in long-term care homes across Canada.
• Long-term care residents deserve to live in dignity, comfort and respect. That is why the Minister of Health and the Minister of Seniors were mandated to develop national long-term care standards and a Safe Long-Term Care Act.
• In January 2023, the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), Health Standards Organization (HSO) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Group released 2 new complementary, independent long-term care standards. These standards provide guidance for delivering long-term care services that are safe, reliable and centred on residents' needs.
• In the summer and fall of 2023, the Government of Canada has carried out extensive consultations and engagement on the new Safe Long-Term Care Act. This included consulting with experts, stakeholders, persons with lived experience, and provinces & territories, as well as building on existing collaborations with First Nations and Inuit partners.
• Budget 2024 announced that the government will introduce a Safe Long-Term Care Act that will encourage provinces and territories to adopt best practices in the facilities under their management.
IF PRESSED ON WHEN THE SAFE LONG-TERM CARE ACT WILL BE TABLED
• The Government of Canada is committed to doing more to support seniors across the country. We know Canadians want to age closer to home and family, but also expect long-term care to be safe, when needed.
• As such, our government is developing a Safe Long-Term Care Act to help ensure that all Canadians get the care they deserve, while respecting provincial and territorial jurisdiction.
• The Government of Canada has carried out extensive consultations and engagement on a Safe Long-Term Care Act. This includes consulting with experts, stakeholders, persons with lived experience, and provinces and territories, as well as building on existing collaborations with First Nations and Inuit partners.
• The Government of Canada has also recently completed a public online consultation on Safe Long-Term care, which will inform the development of the Act.
IF PRESSED ON WHETHER THE NATIONAL LONG-TERM CARE STANDARDS WILL BE ENFORCED THROUGH THE NEW SAFE LONG-TERM CARE ACT
• It is important to note that the delivery of long-term care services is a provincial and territorial responsibility.
• Federal legislation will need to be respectful of this provincial-territorial jurisdiction. That is, it will not mandate standards or regulate long-term care delivery.
• The Government of Canada has already been collaborating with provinces and territories to support improvements in long-term care, as highlighted by the $3 billion investment to support their efforts to ensure standards for long-term care applied and permanent changes are made.
• The Aging with Dignity bilateral agreements will provide $5.4 billion to improve access to home care, community care or care in a safe long-term care facility for seniors today and tomorrow. So far, nine provinces and territories have announced agreements with the federal government. It is anticipated that agreements with the remaining provinces will be announced shortly.
• Funding agreements allow us to continue to work together to prioritize the uptake and adherence to the standards in order to provide high quality care to all Canadians that require it.

Long-term Care (LTC) in Canada
• While the federal government provides financial support to the provinces and territories for health care services, the responsibility for matters related to the administration and delivery of LTC falls within provincial and territorial (PT) jurisdiction.
• LTC is referenced in the Canada Health Act (CHA) as “extended health care services.” Extended services are not covered by the five criteria of the Act or its extra billing and user charges provisions, and therefore are not subject to the Act’s penalty provisions.
• While not mandatory, every PT has LTC legislation, regulations, policies and/or standards, but variations and gaps exist in oversight, infection prevention and control, quality of care and workforce.

Mandate Letters
Previous Minister of Health Mandate Letter
The Government of Canada has committed to work in partnership with provinces and territories to strengthen our universal public health care system and public health supports. Specific commitments include:
• Support efforts to improve the quality and availability of long-term care homes and beds. This includes working with provinces and territories to improve infection prevention and control measures, identify shared principles, and develop national standards and a Safe Long-Term Care Act to ensure seniors get the care they deserve.
• Train up to 50,000 new personal support workers and raise wages.

Third-party standards development process and Safe Long-Term Care Act
On January 31, 2023, the Government of Canada welcomed the release of complementary, independent LTC standards from the Health Standards Organization (HSO) and Canadian Standards Association (CSA Group) and thanked them for their dedicated work to complete the development of LTC standards. The national standards development process was complementary to, but independent from, the Government of Canada’s collaborative work with PTs to help support improvements in LTC. While Health Canada did not fund the recently released LTC standards, it did provide funding to CSA Group and HSO to support enhanced engagement and consultations with Canadians and stakeholders to ensure the diverse perspectives were considered during the development of both standards.

The Government of Canada is also developing a new Safe Long-Term Care Act to help ensure seniors get the care they deserve, while respecting provincial and territorial jurisdiction. The Government of Canada has carried out extensive consultations and engagement with stakeholders and Canadians on a Safe Long-Term Care Act.

A 60-day online consultation (July 21 to September 21, 2023) invited Canadians to share their perspectives and expertise on how to improve the quality and safety of LTC, foster the implementation of the LTC standards, address human resources challenges, and strengthen accountability in the LTC sector.

Recognizing traditional jurisdictional responsibilities over the delivery of LTC, the Government of Canada is also working with provincial and territorial governments on the Safe LTC Act and how to best support the delivery of quality and safe LTC services. The consultations also included discussions and roundtables with experts, stakeholders, Indigenous partners and Canadians to obtain advice on how federal legislation can help support improvements in the quality and safety of LTC.

• On January 31, 2023, the Standards Council of Canada, Health Standards Organization (HSO) and Canadian Standards Association (CSA Group) announced the completion and public release of new national long-term care standards.
• Budget 2023 announced close to $200 billion over 10 years to support the Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians Plan.
• Funding includes $7.8 billion over five years that has yet to flow to provinces and territories for mental health and substance use, home and community care, and long-term care.
• As a part of the previous Minister of Health’s Mandate Letter, Health Canada was tasked with creating a Safe Long-Term Care Act to ensure seniors get the care they deserve.
• The Government of Canada has carried out extensive consultations and engagement with stakeholders and Canadians on a Safe Long-Term Care Act, with the objective of developing this new legislation.
• Budget 2024 announced that the government will introduce a Safe Long-Term Care Act.