Ontario’s Liberal leader has announced what he calls a seniors’ strategy that takes a home-care first approach.

In campaigning for the June 2nd election on Tuesday in Toronto, Steven Del Duca explained the pandemic was a wake-up call that institutionalizing seniors through long-term care has been “one of the great mistakes of the 20th century.”

He is pledging a home-care guarantee that would ensure 400,000 more seniors have access to home care in the next four years, and would boost total funding for the system by $2-billion by 2026 through 10 per cent annual increases.

Del Duca is also committing to eliminate for-profit long term care by 2028.

Steven Del Duca will have more to say about his plans on Zoomer Radio’s Fight Back with Libby Znaimer on Tuesday between noon and 1pm.

NDP leader Andrea Horvath is responding to Del Duca’s plan, releasing a statement that says, “Del Duca is pretending he will do away with for-profit long term care.” Horwath points to the 15 years the Liberals were in office, when Del Duca was a cabinet minister, and how they let their big corporate friends make big profits in the system.

Horwath insists her NDP is the only party ready to fix the broken seniors care system, starting by fixing home-care and removing the profits from long term care.

CARP members have been calling for years to expand home-care. For the first time in an Ontario election, all three major party leaders are now promising to prioritize home care as part of a expanded seniors care plan.