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I have a confession to make. A few years ago, my stock broker recommended I buy shares in one of the companies operating
long-term care homes.
I remember him saying the company paid a good dividend (5%), and had growth prospects because the numbers of old folk in Ontario was increasing steadily. Of course, that number included my wife and I.
I did have a slight worry; I wasn’t sure I wanted to profit from elderly people.
Two months ago, when COVID-19 arrived in Canada, I became aware that nursing homes were affected, but I had forgotten we owned shares in such a company. A few weeks ago, I did notice and immediately told my stock broker to sell the shares.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, something is “efficient” if it is produced with minimum waste or effort. Who could object to that? An efficient woodworker can produce a dining table and six chairs for you, wasting a minimum of wood.
Working swiftly, they are able to make more dining sets each year. Working efficiently keeps the woodworking shop competitive and busy, ensuring their employees a decent income.
You, as the client want your dining set well-made and pleasing to the eye, imparting grace to your dining room. If you ordered it with a view to hosting an extended family Thanksgiving, you would want the work completed when promised or before, something an efficient shop can usually predict accurately.
If you are paying a contractor to build a house, you may be willing to pay for marble kitchen counters, a superior quality roof, plus upgraded insulation and a high-efficiency furnace to reduce heating costs.
However, a developer building a subdivision defines efficiency differently.
Bulk buying kitchen furniture, appliances, furnace, bathroom fixtures and carpets saves money, improving profits.
In other words, efficiency is defined by the person in charge.
Recently, Canadians learned that the overwhelming majority of COVID-19 deaths (over 80%) have been in long-term care homes. Canadians rightly expect our parents and grandparents to receive quality health care, but it has become clear that many do not.
A quarter century ago, Ontario Premier Mike Harris removed the minimum staffing requirement at nursing homes, and many now seem to skimp on staff numbers and qualifications. Weak regulations allow these facilities to hire part-timers who are forced to work at more than one facility to earn a living wage.
Unfortunately, this staff mobility has facilitated the unwitting transfer of COVID-19 between premises. Lax inspection allowed poor care standards to remain hidden, leading to the shockingly high mortality.
We now realize that efficiency has become deficiency.
Recently, Premier Ford announced that he would make it illegal for staff at long-care homes to work at more than one site.
Unfortunately, this sensible new regulation seems to be temporary.
Moreover, he didn’t address the other side of the issue. Not only are pay rates for personal support workers low, but employers prefer hiring people on a part-time basis to avoid paying for benefits. If we want them to work at just one long-term care home, we must ensure they are always offered the option of full-time employment!
Former premier Mike Harris also facilitated the expansion of for-profit long-term care homes by opening government contracts to competitive bidding. Winning such a contract forced “efficiency” on companies if they were to stay in business. Weakened regulations made that easier to do.
Ontario’s long-term care homes were barely coping before the epidemic hit. COVID-19 put them under a spotlight.
Measured on a per-bed basis, for-profit facilities had twice the number of cases as not-for-profit homes, and four times the number experienced by municipally run nursing homes.
Many people repeatedly believed politicians who promised that tax cuts would not hurt services and voted for them. They must understand that some of the extra money jingling in their pockets came from keeping staffing levels and wages low in long-term care facilities, and most cruelly, from residents who bore the brunt of our failure to protect them.
Shame on us for allowing this to happen!
Peter Bursztyn
Barrie
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