Question about keeping tabs on LTC money leads to testy exchange in P.E.I. legislature

A demand Green MLA Peter Bevan-Baker madein the legislature Thursday for accountability from private long-term care home operators led Premier Dennis King to accuse him of smearing the names of "good people across Prince Edward Island."

On Wednesday, the province said it would provide long-term care (LTC) operators with $25 million to open dozens of new long-term care beds. Health Minister Mark McLane said 65 per cent of that money would go toward raising wages for workers in private long-term care homes, to bring them closer to what workers inthe public sector make.

Bevan-Baker wanted to know how the government will make sure that money is indeed spent on wages.

"The $25 million of Islanders' money is all all of it being shoveled into a dark pit where none of us can see how it is actually being spent," he said.

"Until the books of the private long-term care facilities are fully open, there is no openness or accountability. Public dollars are being given to Tory friends with no way for opposition members or Islanders to know how it is being spent."

King's responsewas swift.

"It pains me to see the extent this member has gone, the fall from grace, where he would come into this legislature as the beacon of hope and optimism and all he does is continue to smear the good people across Prince Edward Island," the premier said.

"To hear this honourable member speak so disparagingly about not only the people who own these facilities but the people who work within them, Madame Speakerit really, really, really pains me to see this tremendous fall from grace [of] someone I used to hold in the highest of regard."

The two also sparred over a fact-finding trip to Denmark by the health minister and health department staff to examine long-term care practices there.

Bevan-Baker argued that trip should have resulted in more money being spent on home care and more independent living conditions.

The premier countered by sayingthe province does have a continuum of care for aging Islanders, and investments in lower-level-of-care options would also increase.