The Ontario government says it is giving Conestoga College $4.85 million to train a plethora of new long-term care home assistants.
It says the money will be used to provide free training for 500 people including 475 jobseekers.
“Our government is committed to modernizing long-term care and this includes having the staff we need to support our most vulnerable,” Long-Term Care Minister Dr. Merrilee Fullerton stated.
Those who enroll in the project will get seven weeks of training, which will include a two-week paid placement at a long-term care provider.
“The Long-Term Care Home Assistant program will address the urgent need for trained staff in LTC homes across Ontario while providing opportunities for laid-off workers to gain skills that will allow them to return to the workforce and make positive contributions to the health and well-being of their community,” Conestoga president John Tibbits said.
A total of 3,760 long-term care residents and 11 staff have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic hit.
Fullerton said the deaths of residents and staff in long-term care homes must not be in vain at a press conference on Monday.
The Ontario Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission called for an overhaul of the sector in its final report, delivered to the government Friday night.
The 322-page report said the long-term care sector was not properly prepared for a pandemic, which was then made worse by the Ontario government’s “slow response” when COVID-19 first hit the province.
“Many of the challenges that had festered in the long-term care sector for decades — chronic underfunding, severe staffing shortages, outdated infrastructure and poor oversight — contributed to deadly consequences for Ontario’s most vulnerable citizens during the pandemic,” the commissioners wrote.
-With files from Canadian Press and Global News’ Jess Patton