Most Ontarians don’t believe a long-term care bed should count as a home: new poll

Premier Doug Ford’s new housing accounting seems to be coming up short with Ontarians according to a fresh poll that shows a majority don’t believe a long-term care bed should count as a new home.

The Ford government recently began including long-term care beds in provincial housing construction totals and has not shied away from arguing the merits of the decision.

“I challenge anyone to talk to these seniors and tell them they have a bed and not a home,” Ford said on Friday. “They have their own room, they eat in a dining room with everyone else.”

“These are homes.”

In 2023, provincial data shows 109,000 new homes built in Ontario. A further breakdown of those numbers shows 89,000 were housing construction starts, 9,800 were basement dwellings and laneway homes and 9,800 were long-term care beds.

The addition of long-term care beds helped some communities cross the Ford government’s funding finish line, allowing them to qualify for millions from the $1.2-billion Building Faster Fund.

While the premier has defended the move, a new provincial poll shows a majority seem to disagree with the government’s assessment.

When asked whether governments should “count new long-term care beds as new homes,” 63 per cent of respondents said no, while just 23 per cent felt they should.

The poll also suggests the policy is disliked by every gender and in every age bracket.

Even among those 65 and older, 29 per cent agreed with the government, while 58 per cent did not feel a long-term care bed should count as a home.

The Liaison Strategies telephone survey of 1,200 Ontarians was conducted between March 8 and 9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.74 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

While the survey showed people don’t agree with the idea long-term care beds should be considered homes, it suggested they feel the province is doing the most on housing out of the three levels of Canadian government.

The survey found, for example, that while 40 per cent feel Ontario is “doing the most to create new housing” compared with the federal (24 per cent) and municipal (24 per cent) governments, a majority felt not enough is being done.

The poll found that 55 per cent of respondents believe not enough housing is being created by various levels of government across the province overall, while 23 per cent feel it’s the right amount.

Asked how they felt about housing being built in their neighbourhood, 57 per cent said they thought the right amount of new homes were popping up.

The Ford government, which has been pumping out housing supply action legislation over the course of its second term in office, has been mulling over new changes to spur additional development.

Housing Minister Paul Calandra recently hinted his next housing bill would come after the provincial budget, which is set to be released March 26. Consultations on the proposed law have been taking place for months, with municipalities, developers and other stakeholders.

The province has previously said the 2022 housing task force is a key driving force behind the next round of legislation. The task force set Ontario’s goal of 1.5 million new homes before the most recent provincial election and, while the Ford government has taken the goal on board, it has implemented just 23 of the report’s 74 recommendations.

Another 14 recommendations, the government said, are under progress, while 37 are under review.

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