$10 million in emergency aid for private long-term care centres under agreement

The Legault government has provided an additional $10 million in emergency funding to private long-term care centres (CHSLDs) that were on the verge of running out of service, specifically to maintain funding for 1,200 places.

However, this is less than the $25 million in emergency funding requested by the Association des établissements privés conventionnés (AEPC).

The Minister responsible for Seniors, Sonia Bélanger, announced the $10 million in funding on Friday morning.

“With this assistance, we are ensuring that we can continue to protect Quebec seniors living in private long-term care facilities under agreement, with the same rates and services as in public long-term care facilities,” she said on social media.

At the beginning of March, the AEPC had argued that the current agreement with the government did not cover the rapid rise in expenditure and that, if nothing was done by March 31, the establishments would be in deficit.

The Caquist government had not responded to the urgent request for special funding of $25 million for the last few weeks of the financial year.

The AEPC had suggested that 1,200 of the 7,600 beds could be closed for lack of adequate funding.

The organisation’s Managing Director, Annick Lavoie, felt that action was urgently needed.

AEPC wanted to sit down with the government before the budget was tabled and review the current funding rules.

The agreement with the government, renewed year after year, does not cover the high annual inflation that has persisted since the pandemic.

The gap that has widened between expenditure and the envelopes allocated by the government to fulfil its mission is estimated at 12 per cent by the AEPC, which is calling for indexation in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The association is calling for a return to longer-term funding agreements, over five or six years, as was the case before 2015, to provide greater predictability.

This is the third time in three years that the association has asked for additional aid at the very end of the year, a sign that the issue is a recurring one. The organisation had obtained $15 million in previous years.

According to data provided by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, Quebec has paid total net funding of $1.063 billion in 2024-2025 to the 71 private CHSLDs under agreement, including establishments that have recently been approved and that are not part of the association.

The current agreement has three components: a clinical component, a real estate component and a component for operating expenses.

The government pays $378.4 million for this last component, but it is heavily in deficit, the AEPC deplores.

In particular, it covers administrative staff, maintenance staff, operating expenses, food, heating, and so on.

The building component is also insufficient, according to the AEPC. It amounts to $41.7 million, and some owners are having difficulty even paying their municipal taxes.

AEPC has 29 owner-managers representing 65 establishments and facilities, including two rehabilitation hospitals.

Private long-term care centres under agreement are private companies that provide a public service within parameters defined by the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux.

The monthly rates paid by residents are the same in private long-term care centres under agreement as in state-run long-term care centres.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews