Nearly 200 residents at Chartwell Heritage Glen Retirement received eviction notices. They have until the end of July to leave.

Chartwell, a private, for-profit retirement home and long-term-care provider with an ugly track record of neglect and non-compliance is selling the land to a private developer.

With massive wait-lists for long-term care, retirement homes are increasingly expected to provide direct intensive care. When a retirement home closes, a senior loses a roof over their head and loses their care.

Is this government going to allow Chartwell to throw hundreds of seniors out of their home, potentially to homelessness, to make a quick buck?

Interjections.

The budget talks about affordability, but there’s not one word about grocery prices, that’s because the government knows food prices are high because companies like Loblaws, owned by the Weston family, are gouging consumers and they don’t want to provide help to families. At the same time, food banks are dealing with a massive increase in demand for their services.

Project SHARE, a not-for-profit in my community, is now saying one in eight Niagara Falls residents are using food banks, and 25% are children. These not-for-profits receive no funding in this budget, no funding, no new funding in this 2024 budget. Frankly, these food banks need help, and the grocery chains need to be held accountable.

Will your government commit to taking on “greedflation” and supporting food banks with new funding right across the province of Ontario?

It’s nice to hear the government say that they care about seniors, but the reality is, 6,000 people died in long-term-care facilities in the province of Ontario under your watch—6,000. And 78% died in for-profit homes—78%.

There is not one mention in this budget to talk about not-for-profit care. We all know they receive better care when it’s not-for-profit because it’s about care, not profit. We know that. They brought in Bill 7 because they cared so much about seniors and forced them out of the hospitals with alternate level of care without their consent, Madam Speaker. And I know that you don’t even like it. You can’t say that today, but I know you don’t like it.

My question is very clear, and I wish the minister was here: When will they take the profit out of long-term care and start saving seniors’ lives that are dying every day in our long-term-care facilities?