B.C. long-term care charity appealing to government as funding expiry looms

The provincial government is standing firm on its decision to withdraw funding for overtime and agency staffing for long-term care providers as of Oct. 31, despite advocates’ warnings about the devastating effects this could have on B.C.’s seniors, and one care society is appealing to the government to reconsider.

The Ministry of Health started discussing a funding model for long-term care in 2019, but those talks stalled when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, says Three Links Care Society CEO Janice Boyle. At that point, temporary pandemic-related funding was introduced to help long-term providers cover costs related to staffing shortages and overtime, a measure the government says was due to the “exceptional circumstances” at the time.

Boyle says the province had said it would not withdraw that funding until a new permanent model was put in place, but that has not happened.

Three Links relies heavily on the overtime-related funding and wage-levelling support. With these about to end, Boyle says they could run out of cash within 18 months.

The organization already subsidizes its long-term care operations by about $350,000 through revenue from low-income senior housing, which Boyle says shows just how strained the system has become.

“We can support a $350,000 shortfall. We can’t support a $950,000 one.”

It isn’t just private providers and non-profits that will suffer. Last month, the CEO of BC Care Providers — an organization that represents 450 continuing care facilities across B.C. — said they rely heavily on the funding.

“Without provincial funding to cover overtime and agency staffing costs, operators in many communities will struggle to meet these standards,” she said at the time.

Boyle says some larger organizations will be able to survive the funding cuts, but smaller ones could be destroyed.

Three Links and Rosewood Manor in Richmond will be among the first to feel the pain, she says, showing just how urgently a new funding model is needed.

With just days left before the funding expires, Boyle says she is pleading with Health Minister Josie Osborne to reconsider.

“We are begging the minister to overturn this decision that puts hundreds and hundreds of long-term care beds at risk in the province of B.C.,” she said

Meanwhile, the future of those seniors who rely on these community-based care homes remains uncertain.

— With files from Jan Schuermann and Raynaldo Suarez.