In a live press conference from Saanich today, Justin Trudeau promised to improve working conditions for frontline care workers and support for Canadian seniors if re-elected.
“Better care for seniors starts with better conditions for our frontline care workers,” said Trudeau, live from Veterans Memorial Lodge in Broadmead,
“To ensure these tragedies never happen again and to build a better future for seniors, we need to work together to improve conditions and raise wages for the dedicated personal support workers who help care for them.”
Although management of long-term care facilities is under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, Trudeau emphasised a collaboration with those governments to continue to support seniors.
In the press conference, Trudeau outlined the plans the Liberal government has to continue to do so:
- Raising wages for personal support workers, including a guaranteed minimum wage of at least $25 per hour;
- Training up to 50,000 new personal support workers;
- Doubling the Home Accessibility Tax Credit, which will provide up to an additional $1,500 to help seniors stay in their homes longer by making them more accessible;
- Improving the quality and availability of long-term care home beds;
- Continuing to implement strict infection prevention and control measures, including through more provincial and territorial facility inspections for long-term care homes; and
- Developing a Safe Long Term Care Act collaboratively to ensure that seniors are guaranteed the care they deserve, no matter where they live.
Trudeau also announced the Liberal government will co-develop and invest in a comprehensive distinctions based Indigenous long term and continuing care framework.
Trudeau suggested it shouldn’t take a crisis to highlight that the country was not doing a good enough job in supporting our seniors and loved ones.
The government plans to invest $9,000,000,000 to continue to address the shortfalls in Canada’s long term care sector.
