Canada's seniors are getting some more money.

Yesterday the federal government announced the highest quarterly adjustment to Old Age Security (OAS) payments since 2014.

Deb Schulte, Canada's Minister of Seniors, also confirmed that her government will be providing a one-time payment to older seniors (those aged 75 and up) of $500 during the week of August 16th.

"We looked at data and saw that older seniors were more financially challenged," said Schulte. "We saw there was a need and we made a promise and we delivered on that promise in our 2021 budget (10 percent increase to the OAS pension for seniors begins in July of 2022). In order to provide immediate support, we're issuing a one-time payment of $500 to immediately provide the support we promised."

August's one-time payment will apply to 3.3 million seniors who are eligible for the OAS pension in June 2021 and were born on or before June 30, 1947. No action is required by seniors, who will automatically receive the payment if they are eligible.

In July 2021, OAS benefits will automatically increase 1.3 per cent, bringing the maximum monthly OAS pension amount to $626.49 from $618.45. Over the coming year, the increase is worth up to $96.48. The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and the Allowances will also be adjusted for inflation.

Budget 2021 also included a permanent increase of 10 percent to the OAS pension, to be implemented in July 2022 for seniors 75 and over. This will provide an additional $766 to full pensioners over the first year and will be the first permanent increase to the OAS pension since 1973, other than adjustments due to inflation.

Schulte says it builds on measures to support all seniors, including restoring the age of eligibility for the OAS pension and the GIS to 65 from 67, strengthening the Canada Pension Plan for future retirees, increasing the GIS for single seniors, raising the GIS earnings exemption and reducing income taxes for all Canadians.

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Canada announced today that over $60 million dollars will be invested into over 3,000 community-based projects to support seniors across the country. 

The federal government says that the pandemic has increased social isolation among many older Canadians, and programs serving them are now more important than ever. The  $60.8 million funding was awarded through the New Horizons for Seniors Program’s (NHSP) most recent call for proposals for community-based projects.

Deb Schulte, Canada’s Minister of Seniors, announced the investment Wednesday during a virtual event at the Vaughan Community Health Centre, which received funding for one of their own projects.

“I am proud of the thousands of projects funded through the NHSP, including more projects in rural and remote communities than ever before,” said Schulte. “These projects help Canadian seniors stay active and socially connected during this unprecedented time. Seniors have given and continue to give so much to our country; it is important that we provide them with the programs and support they deserve.”

This year, increased funding and improvements to the program resulted in the highest number of applications ever, almost double the number of projects serving rural seniors, and a greater share of funded projects serving vulnerable seniors. The funded projects vary from exercise programs to mediation, fighting abuse and even food deliveries. 

“As we know, the pandemic has been especially hard on seniors. Facing isolation at home, staying safe, not being able to see their families and grand-kids and all of those important connections they have in the community. Last year, we had 2,000 projects across the country supporting seniors. A lot of them connecting seniors to the internet and giving them the support they need to be comfortable with that technology”

Community-based projects are eligible to receive up to $25,000 in grant funding. Additional grants of up to $5,000 were made available for organizations that have not received funding from the program in the past five years.

Visit the NHSP website for more details. 

Minister Schulte also touched on another aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinations. 

“It's really an important element in us getting out of this pandemic; to make sure we can vaccinate Canadians. It's been a very big focus for our government. We've delivered almost 5 million doses to the provinces and territories so far. For the [Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine] alone, we're now receiving over one million doses a week until the end of May. We're now getting a good supply of vaccines and the provinces and territories are ramping up to get them in the arms of Canadians.” she said. 

Minister Schulte says she wants to assure Canadians, including our seniors, that the vaccines are safe. 

“We have stringent regulations and reviews that are done by Health Canada. All vaccines, including AstraZeneca, are 100% effective against serious outcomes, including death. Everyone should be comfortable and feel safe to take the vaccine, whatever vaccine is offered, as soon as possible.”

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The provincial government is investing $40 million to help small and rural municipalities "improve the delivery of critical programs and services".

The Municipal Modernization Program is part of the $125 million investment through 2022-2023 made by the government to help northern municipalities become more efficient and save taxpayers' dollars.

"My announcement yesterday provides [these] municipalities to find ways to modernize services for residents and businesses," said Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark.
Clark says that many municipalities have used the funding to conduct reviews of service delivery, as well as looking at administrative expenditures and finding efficiencies.

"It has also been used to implement a range of projects, including the development of online systems to improve local connections with citizens. COVID-19 has told us that many more people are working from home and this fund gives municipalities an opportunity to modernize and upgrade their IT systems, or just be able to provide a local service to be accessed digitally, where normally it would be accessed face to face."

Clark says that it also allows neighbouring municipalities to work together by developing shared services.

"We are going to continue to go to bat for Ontario's 444 municipalities. We believe, quite strongly, that municipalities are going to be leading the recovery in a post-COVID-19 Ontario. It's important we give them the tools, resources and the funds to make sure they're positioned for that recovery," Clark finished.

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As Ontario battles COVID-19, it's clear that the virus has not let up its tight grip on long-term care homes.

2,341 of Ontario's 3,836 deaths are in long-term care homes (61%).

In December alone, 98 deaths have occurred in homes.

Merrilee Fullerton, Ontario's Minister of Long-Term Care, acknowledges the pain and loss that people have experienced.

"It's a horrible, horrible pandemic. COVID-19 really is an insidious virus, and it spreads in very highly transmissible ways. It's almost impossible to detect."

Fullerton says that with long-term care homes now adapting to the rapid testing, as well as an increase in general testing, homes are picking up cases before they come into the facility.

"It's mostly on people coming in from the community and that's an important realization that's happened since the first wave; asymptomatic spread. [...] This has been a continuous learning process.”

Fullerton says that what we're seeing in Ontario now is growing cases across the community, which makes it difficult to keep out of the long-term care homes.

"We have to have even more robust testing. That's why we're doing the rapid tests, and those are starting. The vaccine is coming I know people want to hear about that, and long-term care will be a priority area for that."

The provincial government has invested hundreds of millions into the long-term care homes to address staffing, changes homes had to make at physical structures to prevent spread, as well as the infection prevention control measures.

"This is a virus we're continuing to learn about - shoring up our homes is a priority for our government. Rebuilding, repairing and advancing long-term care has to be done," said Fullerton.
Ontario currently has 115 long-term care homes in outbreak, but Fullerton says that 68 of those homes have no resident cases.

"They're considered in outbreak because there may be staff that have been identified through our surveillance testing, and are self-isolating at home. There are 68 homes with no resident cases of the homes considered in outbreak. That's an important point. it means our surveillance testing is working for the most part. But I want to emphasize, one case of COVID-19 getting into a home, and going undetected, is devastating in some cases," she said.

Fullerton says that the question 'Why is this still happening?' is important, and she says it's because they aren't able to detect every single virus coming into the long term care homes.

"We're really refining how we get our tests done all at the same time for a home, so we don't get a few tests back. We want a complete picture. If we can get the regular PCR tests rapidly, and get them arriving in batches... so that we can understand at the same time who has it right now, how many cases are in that home, and really identify staff and residents as soon as possible that allows the home to cohort, separate, or send individuals to the hospital if they need to, or transfer residents to locations where they may be better served."

Fullerton says it's a cross-government, cross-agency effort.

"It's a massive effort to stop the spread in the homes. [All a home needs is] one single case. That's why it's so important for everyone in the community to do what they can to stop the spread; Washing hands, wearing a mask, limiting social contacts especially during holidays. It's easy to let our guard down, but all it takes is one case getting into that long-term care home and we have devastation."

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Ontario’s record $187-billion budget promises a record deficit of $38.5 billion this year, but Stan Cho, Parliamentary Assistant to the Finance Minister, is confident it will benefit Ontarians in the long run.

“We’re confident that with the recovery and support measures we’ve introduced, they will serve as a catalyst for when we have COVID-19 in the rearview mirror so we’re prepared for those days and we want to be ahead of the rest of the world when that happens,” Cho said in an interview with Vista Radio.

Prior to the budget being formally released, it was revealed that there is no provincial tax hike for Ontarians, but the government will allow for municipalities to raise property taxes if they need to. Cho believes this will benefit business-owners.

“What we’ve done with this budget is reduce the provincial portion of the property tax so the provincial portion will remain the same so it’s not a hit to [municipalities’] revenue,” Cho explained. “This will lead to a 30 percent savings for those small businesses out there that are just trying to make ends meet.”

Cho adds the lowering of the provincial portion of property taxes will extend beyond the three-year budget.

“We know that the fallout from COVID-19 could be longer than we like so we’re preparing for that stage of recovery by reducing the burden on businesses,” he said.

Also included in the budget is the continuation of the Support for Learners program which was rolled out near the beginning of the pandemic. Under the new budget, families will receive $200 dollars for each child 12 and under, with $250 available for children with special needs aged 0 to 21.

More money will also be spent on seniors, with rebates available for homeowners who renovate their houses to accommodate for a senior resident.

“Some of them (seniors) want to stay at home and have been spending more time at home because of the pandemic,” Cho explained. “If you put $10,000 into safety, whether that be for widening the doors, installing a security system or a ramp for better accessibility, if you spend that $10,000 you get that $2500 back.”

The province also announced that it will allow credit unions to sell auto insurance, which Cho says will tackle what he calls a broken system.

“It’s a system full of conflict, you have no-fault and the right to sue which creates all these problems, so we have to fix this by going after the root underlying problem. We have to increase competition, we have to allow for innovation in that sector, we have to remove the conflict, and we have to get the bad actors out of there. We have to make sure fraud is dealt with,” he said.

As for mitigating the long-term economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cho says that his government’s budget has sufficiently prepared for the province to prosper when the pandemic is over.

“When COVID-19 is behind us and we start making that record job creation and we start to see the revenue increase for the province we will reduce the deficit while at the same time balancing the prosperity of the province. I’m confident that we will leave this world in better shape for the next generation,” he concluded.

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Long-term care residents across the province will be seeing an increase in the hours they receive direct care.

Today (Monday), the Ontario government announced that each resident will see an average of four hours per day, up from just under the three hours they receive now.

The announcement was made in advance of the release of the province's 2020 budget, on November 5.

This new commitment to improve quality of care includes:

- Average daily direct care of four hours a day per resident. Direct hands-on care is provided by nurses or personal support workers to support individual clinical and personal care needs.

- Hard targets set over the next four years to achieve this standard by 2024-25. Progress against these targets will be measured and reported regularly.

- Unprecedented changes to educate and recruit tens of thousands of new personal support workers, registered practical nurses, and registered nurses that will be required. As part of the province's COVID-19 Fall Preparedness Plan, the province is taking the first step by recruiting an additional 3,700 frontline workers for its health workforce.

Merilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care, says it's one of the most important changes to long-term care in the history of the province. She adds the four hours of care is a monumental commitment and training tens of thousands of new personal support workers and nurses will be required.

"As a physician of almost 30 years, starting back in the ’80s and in long-term care, it was very clear that there were many shortcomings. Putting residents at the center of care, it’s going to require 10s of thousands of staff. The announcement today is an ambitious plan, but it’s one that we absolutely have to work together with multiple governments making sure multiple ministries are involved. We really have to make sure LTC is integrated with our acute care system.[…] We’ll also be working with colleges to make sure we’ll have the ability to train PSWs, nurses, and registered practical nurses.”

Fullerton says that the four-year target for hiring and training staff is due to a current staffing crisis.

“Even when we first became a ministry of long-term care in the summer of 2019, we were hearing from the sector of a staffing crisis. We’re taking two different approaches; one is the longer-term approach. Four hours of care, and the tens of thousands of staff that will need to be hired through rapid training programs, through the return of service programs and making sure we retain the workers that come to the homes and improving their experience whether it's creating a more team-like environment, career laddering and creating an environment that they want to work. We have to change in that regard.”

The other prong, Fullerton says, is the measures taken through COVID-19.

“Whether it's making staffing more flexible for the home, so they can attract more staff, or the $240 million in emergency funding at the beginning of the pandemic, or almost the 3/4 of a billion dollars, including the $540 million we started a few weeks ago... This is all funding that supports our plan. It's one thing to have a plan, it's another thing to make sure the dollars are being put behind it. No doubt, to create tens of thousands of new workers is an ambitious plan. But the problems were a long time festering in long-term care  and our government is really the first government to address this in a profound and meaningful way with four hours of direct care.”

Fullerton says that looking back, she knew that the long-term care sector needed this kind of help.

“Specifically and especially in the last 10 years. I believe in many instances… governments often work with the emergencies they have at hand. This was building very, very quietly in communities across Ontario where the waitlists were growing. 38,000 people on a waitlist and this accumulated over many years. This took a long time to get to the point of neglect that it did. I can’t speak for other governments but I can tell you that our government is committed to addressing this. We understand the sense of urgency. This is for all the people waiting for long-term care; their families and their loved ones. I know what it is to be on that end personally having loved ones who have needed care. I also know professionally as a physician.

Fullerton wants Ontarians to know how important residents receiving four hours of care is.

“It’s unprecedented. We’re going to need thousands and thousands of new workers and we have a plan for that. It’s a generational problem and we’re committed to finding the solution,” she finished.

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A court backlog caused by the pandemic means some impaired drivers in Ontario won't be facing criminal charges.

A new directive recommended by the Ministry of Attorney General allows prosecutors to settle for a guilty plea to a lesser charge of careless driving if the impaired case has no aggravating factors. 

Attorney General Doug Downey says that it's only a temporary measure, and the circumstances must allow for it.

"We've consulted with both the Association of Chiefs of Police and MADD and other organizations and we collectively decided that we wanted to give Crown prosecutors, who have the discretion to do this in any event, a consistency across the Province."

With a high backlog of cases due to the pandemic, Downey says this allows them to not lose many "punishments". 

He adds that this is not a permanent situation, and only a temporary one to help deal with the volume.

"There has to be no mitigative factors like property damage or if someone's been hurt. If that happened, this isn't applicable to [the case]. The Crown prosecutors have discretion when it is and when it isn't. There's a lot of constraints on this. We were very careful." finished Downey.

According to the government's website, an accused is ineligible for the resolution if any of the following deemed aggravating factors under the Criminal Code and other factors are present:

• bodily harm or death resulted
• the accused’s blood alcohol concentration is equal to or more than 120 mg within two hours after operating a vehicle
• the accused has a prior criminal or HTA record for similar offences
• the accused is prohibited or suspended from driving under a federal or provincial act
• a collision or significant bad driving was reported
• the accused has a prior HTA ‘warn’ or ‘ADLS’ licence suspension
• the accused was being paid for driving at the time
• a person under the age of 16 years was a passenger in the vehicle
• the accused refused to provide a breath or blood sample
• the accused was driving a large motor vehicle
• the impairment was caused by drugs or a combination of drugs and alcohol

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