Nova Scotia’s auditor general says the provincial Fire Marshal’s office is putting the public at risk in failing to manage fire and building safety despite repeated warnings in a series of audits. Kim Adair says her report is the third since 2001 that has made similar findings and has also determined that the Fire Marshal’s…

An Ontario judge has ruled that families of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic can sue the province’s minister of long-term care—allowing them to avoid the reach of a 2020 law that bars almost all COVID-related litigation against the provincial government. In his ruling released on Dec….

The Ontario government says it is looking to increase publicly covered surgeries performed at private clinics to help alleviate the province’s surgical waitlists, among several other measures. Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced Ontario’s “Plan to Stay Open” on Aug. 18, saying the province needs to be “bold, innovative and creative” when looking for ways to…

TORONTO—Residents of Ontario’s long-term care homes begged on Tuesday to be allowed outside, saying anti-pandemic restrictions that have confined them indoors for more than a year make no sense given almost all have now been vaccinated. Some compared their situations to solitary confinement, and urged the provincial government to act on what they called a…

TORONTO—Ontario says it has completed the first round of COVID-19 vaccinations in all of its long-term care homes. The province had committed to vaccinating every eligible long-term care resident who wanted a shot by Wednesday. Premier Doug Ford gave credit to retired general Rick Hillier and his vaccination rollout task force for getting the first…

A COVID-19 variant has been detected by health authorities at a Barrie long-term care home which is currently experiencing the virus outbreak. Testing continues to determine the exact variant strain. Preliminary laboratory testing has identified a COVID-19 variant in six swabs at Roberta Place, a long-term care home in Barrie, Ontario, according to the Simcoe…

Canada’s largest province plans to administer the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in all nursing and high-risk retirement homes by the middle of next month as it works to boost its immunization capacity. The Ontario government says it is stepping up immunizations in long-term care homes now that it has protocols in place to…

MONTREAL—Seven residents of a Montreal long-term care centre who received a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have contracted COVID-19. Management at the Maimonides Geriatric Centre informed patients in a notice sent Tuesday, noting that residents were infected within the first 28 days of receiving their first of two vaccine doses. Quebec has decided to…

Ontario has rejected a request by an independent commission asking for more time to complete its final report on the causes and prevention of COVID-19 spread in long-term care (LTC) homes across the province. LTC minister Merrilee Fullerton says the deadline of the final report is still expected by April 30. But the province’s long-term…

A third of Ontario’s long-term care homes are reporting COVID-19 outbreaks, marking a new record for the province, as advocates say spread among staff has forced some facilities to seek new sources of support to care for residents. According to provincial data, 207 of the 626 long-term care homes in Ontario are currently experiencing outbreaks…