Providing More Care, Protecting Seniors and Building More Beds Act Receives Royal Assent

Legislation will protect our progress by ensuring long-term care and retirement home residents get the care they deserve

On December 9, 2021, the Providing More Care, Protecting Seniors, and Building More Beds Act, 2021 received Royal Assent. This landmark legislation will ensure residents in long-term care and retirement homes get the quality of care they deserve.

“Our government has a plan to fix long-term care and this new legislation is a key part of our plan,” said Rod Phillips, Minister of Long-Term Care. “This legislation will help us ensure that residents receive better quality of care and enjoy a better quality of life by supporting the three pillars of our plan: improving staffing and care; protecting residents through better accountability, enforcement, and transparency; and building more modern, safe, and comfortable homes for our seniors.”

The legislation will repeal the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007 and replace it with the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021, which helps improve long-term care by:

establishing in law the commitment to provide an average of four hours of direct care per resident per day by March 31, 2025, with increasing interim goals to increase care
establishing new compliance and enforcement tools, including doubling the fines on the conviction of an offence
strengthening the Residents’ Bill of Rights to align with the Ontario Human Rights Code and recognizing the important and ongoing role caregivers play in resident health and well-being

Also included in the legislation are changes to the Retirement Homes Act, 2010 that will significantly improve the health, protection, and well-being of residents in retirement homes across Ontario by:

providing better quality care for residents, and better protection for those in unlicensed homes

improving protection for residents against financial abuse

strengthening the authority of the Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority (RHRA), to be a more effective regulator and administrator of the Retirement Homes Act, 2010.

In the coming months, the government will propose and publicly consult on regulations to further support and strengthen the new Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 and the Retirement Homes Act, 2010.

“Our government’s improvements to the Retirement Homes Act will create a stronger retirement home system for residents and families across Ontario,” said Raymond Cho, Minister for Seniors and Accessibility. “Seniors deserve to live in dignity. Seniors should get the very best care. Seniors have built this province. These changes will make this possible.”

Quick Facts

Ontario’s long-term care staffing plan commits to increasing the hours of direct care to an average of four hours per day for each long-term care resident by March 2025 and increasing care provided by allied health care providers, per resident, per day by 20% by March 2023. As part of this commitment, the government is investing $4.9 billion over four years to support more than 27,000 new positions in long-term care, including personal support workers, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses.

The government is providing an additional $72.3 million over three years to increase enforcement capacity including doubling the number of inspectors across the province by 2022–23. This will make Ontario’s inspector to long-term care homes ratio the highest in Canada.

The province has made a historic $6.4 billion investment to deliver 30,000 net new long-term care beds by 2028 and about 28,000 upgraded long-term care beds across the province.