Summary#

Bill 14, the Time to Care Act (Long-Term Care Homes Amendment, Minimum Standard of Daily Care), 2021, would amend Ontario’s Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007. Its stated goal is to establish a minimum standard of daily care; the bill would require each long-term care home to offer an average of at least four combined hours of nursing and personal support services per resident each day, unless regulations set a higher minimum.

• Each home’s licensee (the person or organization responsible for the home) would have to meet the average daily-hours minimum.
• The average would be calculated under rules set by regulation. It would exclude paid time for vacation, holidays, leave, sick time, training, and other purposes that do not involve direct patient care.
• The bill would require care plans to be based on an assessment of the resident, their needs and preferences, and the home’s duty to meet the hours minimum.
• The minimum could be raised by regulation. The bill would take effect six months after Royal Assent.

What it means for you#

• Long-term care residents: The bill would set a home-wide average, not guarantee each resident four hours of nursing and personal support services every day. The bill does not set individual daily hours.
• Long-term care home licensees: They would have to meet the average minimum and account for that duty when planning residents’ care. The bill does not specify how many staff must be hired.
• Families and the public: The bill does not set a new fee, benefit, or resident right to a specific number of hours. It does not spell out a complaint or enforcement process. The parent Act was not supplied, so existing enforcement rules could not be checked.

Money#

No cost information is in the available material.

• The bill would require homes to meet a minimum level of direct-care hours, but does not estimate staffing or other costs.
• It does not specify new public funding or how any added costs would be paid.

What is unclear#

• Regulations would set how the average is calculated; those rules are not included in the bill.
• The bill does not explain how compliance would be monitored or what would happen if a home fell short.
• It does not set a process for increasing the minimum by regulation or say what higher level might be chosen.
• It does not specify staffing levels, funding, or how the hours minimum would work alongside other requirements in the Act.

Case for#

• A minimum could set a common floor for nursing and personal support services across long-term care homes.
• Excluding paid time not spent on direct patient care could make the minimum measure hours focused on residents’ care.
• Tying care plans to residents’ assessed needs and preferences, while also requiring homes to meet the minimum, could connect individual planning with a home-wide standard.

Case against#

• Because the requirement is an average, a home could meet it while some residents receive fewer than four hours of services.
• The bill leaves key calculation details to regulations, so the practical standard would depend on rules not included in the bill.
• The bill sets a duty without stating how homes would pay for staffing or how compliance would be enforced.