Over the past several months, Home Care Ontario has been advocating strongly on your behalf for increased funding to support your staff and the patients they serve, as well as improvements to support Family Funded members. We are happy to share that the provincial government has heard our advocacy and acted on our two primary recommendations in today’s budget!

Our first recommendation was for the government to stabilize the home care system by fast-tracking the remaining $880 million commitment from last year’s budget by allocating $424.99 million this year – $288.67 million for contract rate increases to support current staffing levels, and $136.3 million for new capacity in the system.

Today’s budget goes further than we had hoped – accelerating investments to bring funding for 2023-24 up to $569 million, including nearly $300 million to support contract rate increases to stabilize the system. This historic funding will help home care providers deliver more critical health care services to Ontarians, in the comfort of their homes.

Our second ask was to modify and enhance the Ontario Seniors Care at Home Tax Credit, to make it more accessible for those Ontarians who rely on family funded home care. Because Ontario’s tax system uses the federal government for implementation, making this change will require the assistance of the Government of Canada. We are extremely pleased to see the Budget commit to continuing to working with the federal government to make claiming supports as easy and convenient as possible.

Finally, we know the whole sector stands ready to assist the government with its efforts to modernize home care the province moves towards a transformed health care system. We were encouraged to see the Budget reference this important work, particularly the reference to working with “home care partners” to modernize the system.

In response to today’s budget, Home Care Ontario released the following statement:

Click here to read a message from Home Care Ontario CEO Sue VanderBent

"Home Care Ontario welcomes today’s announcement of a further extension of the $3 PSW wage enhancement. We have strongly advocated for this as it is critical we acknowledge and recognize the valuable work performed by PSW’s and other participants in the broader healthcare sector. In this regard, it is important to recognize the thousands of PSWs providing family-funded care who, while not included in this policy, play a key role in helping deliver care to thousands of seniors across the province every day.

It is time, however, to move past temporary solutions and make this wage increase permanent.

The wage enhancement is only one part of the solution as it does little to address the wage disparity that exists when home care PSWs are still paid $4-$5 less than in long-term care to do the same job. The government’s investments in the Long-Term Care sector during the pandemic, while needed, have not been accompanied by corresponding support for Ontarians receiving care at home. That has only worsened the disparity and caused an exodus of workers from the home care system. Home Care Ontario has been sounding the alarm for months that the home care system is now in crisis. We are calling on the province to help address this crisis by making an immediate $600M investment to ensure our seniors receive the care they want, where they want it - at home.”

- Sue VanderBent, CEO, Home Care Ontario

See Ministry of Health's full press release here.

The Home Care Ontario Team