Retirement Homes Licence fee called ‘tax on seniors’

SARNIA -- Retirement home residents will take a hit in the wallet when a new licensing system takes effect, warns a Sarniabased retirement living manager. The new Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority (RHRA) will require all Ontario retirement homes to apply for a licence to operate. About 40,000 Ontario seniors live in 700 retirement homes. Under the Retirement Homes Act, the authority will ensure facilities meet standards in cleanliness, food preparation, and emergency plans. All retirement home staff are also expected to be trained on preventing abuse and neglect, along with protection for whistle-blowers. But retirement homes will have to pony up licensing fees. Homes with fewer than 20 suites will pay an $800 application fee to be licensed. All other homes will pay $1,200. Once approved, homes will pay an annual licensing fee to the RHRA. "In effect it's a tax on seniors," said Clarke Boddy, retirement living division manager of Steeves & Rozema Group. "The re…
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Provincial aging-at-home strategy fails many seniors

Provincial aging-at-home strategy fails many seniors; Much vaunted $1.1-billion plan has left thousands of Ontario seniors without adequate home care. A 90-year-old Scarborough woman with dementia is told she does not qualify for home care. A daughter in Stouffville , north of Toronto, begs to keep a few home care hours for her 86-year-old father who is paralyzed by a stroke. In Aurora, a woman who cares for her chronically ill husband, was refused home care after she broke her back. These are some of the faces of Ontario's Aging at Home strategy, a four-year program that began in 2008 with great promise. A Toronto Star investigation has found the $1.1-billion strategy is failing many seniors by not providing the care they need to continue living at home. Most of the money has been diverted to a provincial plan that provides home care for seniors discharged from hospital beds where the cost of a day's care is more than three times what it costs for a day's home c…
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