Re: CCAC Review and Funding Announcment

Dear Minister,

We are aware of your public statement regarding $92.5 million in funding for CCACs, as well as your promised review of the RFP process and the wage disparity between institutional and community health care workers (September 7, 2000). Your acknowledgement of the seriousness of these problems underlines the urgency of meeting the public’s concerns.

As you are aware, the $92.5 million is woefully inadequate to deal with the issues that you yourself have recognized. For a number of centres, this funding will not even cover their deficits for the last fiscal year. The current strikes at the VON in Hamilton and at Senior Persons’ Resources in North Toronto (SPRINT) highlight the crucial need for immediate action to improve working conditions and eliminate the gap for community sector health workers. It is imperative that your government move quickly to provide stable and adequate funding and staffing to deal with these and other issues that we have identified to you in previoius correspondence and meetings. Furthermore, one of the key causes of these problems – the destructive policy of so-called managed competition in the home care sector – must cease.

The experience of managed competition in the home care sector, and the chaotic results of health cuts and restructuring underline the crucial need for your government to assess communities’ needs and listen to their feedback. Your current review of the CCACs is an opportune time for your government to hear from Ontarians about what is and is not working. Our members have expressed to us serious concerns about the lack of democracy in the governance – and secrecy shrouding the service contracts – of some CCACs as well as issues with service levels and duplication. We call upon your government to include broad public consultation in your evaluation of the CCACs.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to reiterate to you, in the strongest terms possible, our call for broad and meaningful public consultation on long term care reform. After some equivocation, you have committed to consultations prior to the introduction of any new legislation. We await a consultation document and details about the process, with sufficient lead time to make a useful contribution.

Sincerly,