Ontario testing changes to controversial LTC law after issues with cultural homes [Video]

The Ford government is trialling changes to a controversial long-term care law that allowed the province to place people into homes they hadn’t chosen, a move introduced to speed up wait lists and free up hospital beds.

The law, Bill 7, was introduced in 2022 and sparked concern from many in the long-term care space who worried about seniors being moved to homes far from their families or into unfamiliar settings.

As a result of the bill, Ontario’s cultural long-term care homes found more residents who weren’t from the linguistic or cultural background they catered to moving in.

Homes that deal with specific cultures or ethnic backgrounds and often provide programming in other languages — for example Italian, Ukrainian, Korean or French —  started to see the arrival of more people who weren’t familiar with the culture or language.

“Some stakeholders have raised concerns that there is an increasing …