Ford government blasts Pickering council for rejecting long-term care home MZO request
Global News
Orchard Villa was one of seven long-term care homes forced to call in the Canadian military at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with soldiers observing 'horrifying' conditions.
The Ford government has taken aim at local councillors in Durham Region after they unanimously rejected a request to fast-track the construction of a long-term care home.
On Monday night, Pickering City Council threw out an approach asking for endorsement of a request to skip the traditional planning process to build a 15-storey long-term care home.
The request was for a minister’s zoning order (MZO), which would allow the proponents of a long-term care home to bypass much of the local planning process and speed-up construction.
A spokesperson for Ontario long-term care minister Paul Calandra blasted the council decision.
“This latest council resolution was a vote against demolishing Orchard Villa and building a new state-of-the-art home,” the spokesperson said, noting there are more than 650 people on long-term care waitlists in the city.
“Despite all of the province’s efforts to address the growing waitlist, despite a time-limited construction subsidy to spur construction, Pickering continues to stand in the way of much-needed additional capacity.”
The request, however, came from a long-term care home which some in the area felt had proved unsafe during the COVID-19 pandemic — more than 80 residents at the Orchard Villa home died in that period.
“This is absolutely a slap in the face to the families who have suffered — and myself and my family,” Cathy Parkes, whose father died at Orchard Villa in 2020, told Global News.
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