Where’s the beef?

One day after Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives unveiled a record $187 billion budget, critics are demanding details on boosting the level of care in nursing homes in the wake of COVID-19.

Days before the budget was unveiled on Thursday, Ford pledged to hire thousands of nurses and personal support workers to ensure four hours of hands-on care for residents up from two hours and 45 minutes.

But that promise, which is estimated to cost $1.6 billion a year, was not specifically spelled out in the budget, which added $7.5 billion in new funding to fight the pandemic that has killed some 3,200 Ontarians since March, two-thirds of them in nursing homes.

“It’s like Doug Ford is throwing in the towel on fighting COVID-19 in nursing homes,” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Friday.

“He’s telling seniors and long-term-care staff — the heroes still there, working night and day — that they’re on their own now in the battle against COVID-19. Help is not on the way,” said Horwath.

“Doug Ford’s budget doesn’t take any new actions to make everyday people safer, or healthier, especially in long-term care.”

Morgan Hoffarth, president of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) expressed concern that the government isn’t guaranteeing four hours of care until 2024-25.

“There is no excuse for postponing the urgently needed staffing increase in the province’s nursing homes,” said Hoffarth, adding the government’s “timetable to act on this promise will only lead to more preventable deaths.”

“We can’t — and shouldn’t have to — wait more than four years to meet minimum safety standards for this province’s most vulnerable seniors,” said Hoffarth.

Donna Duncan, CEO of the Ontario Long Term Care Association, which represents 70 per cent of the province’s nursing homes, said “the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated long-standing issues in long-term care.”

Duncan praised the government for “committing to increase direct care to an average of four hours for long-term-care residents.”

“We look forward to working with them to create a workforce with thousands more skilled health-care workers to serve our seniors,” she said.

Ford, for his part, said the Tories are “totally committed to make sure that we have four hours of care.”

Finance Minister Rod Phillips emphasized “the funding is and will be available for four hours of care in long-term care.”

“We’ll be getting the staffing strategy in December,” said Phillips, adding he is in discussions with Ottawa to get more people to come to Ontario to fill the new caregiver jobs.

“We’ve started the conversation about the important role that some targeted immigration can play. We’re talking about tens of thousands of people that need to be trained and we’ll be setting metrics,” he said.

“So we shouldn’t underestimate the complexity of this, but … the money will be there to pay for it and this will make so much difference.”

Warren (Smokey) Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union, said Thursday’s budget was the first since former NDP premier Bob Rae was in power “that acknowledges public services are the great equalizer, and that doesn’t cast public sector workers as villains.”

“It’s clear that during the pandemic, this government has come to recognize the true value of strong public services. Front-line workers are indeed heroes,” said Thomas, hailing the “excellent commitment” to hire long-term-care workers.

The government’s long-term-care commission last month issued an interim recommendation urging the four-hour standard of care.

Some 2,900 nursing-home workers have caught COVID-19 and eight have died, which has made recruiting staff challenging. The Tories have temporarily increased wages for caregivers by $3 an hour as an incentive to stay.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: