The federal government may create a training program for unemployed Canadians to assist in long-term care homes, as the pandemic continues to disproportionately impact nursing homes and care facilities.
“We may create, working with the Homecare Workers Associations of Canada, some kind of training so that people who aren’t in those jobs now – maybe people who are at home and unemployed – can take a shortened version of this training and be able to perform the less complicated tasks that are required at these homes,” said Carla Qualtrough, the federal minister of employment, workforce development and disability inclusion, in an interview on CTV’s Question Period on Sunday.
“Canadians who want to step up, we will help them with the training. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are ready, we just have to make sure they’re trained and they’re safe and that they too are not put at risk.”
The program would be available to any provinces in need during the pandemic.
However, Qualtrough added, the plan is not yet official and “no formula” has been yet been created as to how it will operate. She did assure that the government is aware of the problem and actively looking at how it can best provide support to long-term care homes.
“We’ll definitely have a conversation in this country coming out of this on how we can do better and what that will look like,” she added. “Any collective living situation needs to be really, honestly dissected, and we need a better way forward in Canada on this.”
This news comes days after Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan announced that the Canadian Armed Forces has over 1,000 soldiers, including medical and support staff, providing assistance to 20 long-term care homes in Quebec. By the end of the month, that will grow to 1,350 soldiers in 25 homes.
In Ontario, 250 soldiers are working in five long-term care homes.
A week ago, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported that outbreaks at long-term care homes are responsible for 82 per cent of coronavirus-related deaths in the country.
