We will work collaboratively with patients, caregivers, and provincial and territorial governments to develop national care standards for home care and long-term care, regulated by the same principles as the Canada Health Act. By doing so, a New Democrat government would legally protect access to home care and long-term care services, and ensure a consistent quality of care across the country.

This process will be backed by funding tied to meeting these standards, and include determining a core basket of home care services that will be available and covered by provincial insurance plans, and setting minimum national care standards for long- term care residents. We will also work with the provinces to develop and support workforce strategies and violence prevention to recruit and protect front-line staff, and ensure a safe working environment for personal support and health care workers.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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Introduce a new Multigenerational Home Renovation tax credit to help families add a secondary unit to their home for an immediate or extended family member. Families will be able to claim a 15% tax credit for up to $50,000 in renovation and construction costs, saving up to $7,500.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Expand the Canada Caregiver Credit into a refundable, tax-free benefit. This will help 200,000 more Canadians qualify, and increase support for 448,000 people.

Make the Canada Caregiver Credit refundable, allowing caregivers to receive up to $1,250 per year.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Double the Home Accessibility Tax Credit, to $20,000, putting up to $1,500 back in the of Canadians who need it.

Establish an expert panel to provide recommendations for establishing an Aging at Home Benefit.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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To deliver these results all across the country, a we will lead a National Seniors Strategy that will work with the provinces, territories and Indigenous governments to make seniors health care a priority, reduce isolation and tackle seniors’ poverty. This will include a funded national dementia strategy, and an elder abuse prevention plan developed with seniors to put an end to abuse and neglect in our communities.

Our national pharmacare for all plan will provide prescription medicine to all seniors, saving seniors hundreds of dollars every year and ensuring that no one needs to choose between medicine and other essentials, and our dental care plan will mean that uninsured seniors can go to the dentist when they need to, without facing costly bills.

Seniors deserve a retirement that’s financially secure and dignified. And no senior should miss out on benefits they qualify for because of a paperwork oversight – but that’s exactly what’s happening to tens of thousands of seniors today. We’ll put in place a one-year delay to help seniors at risk of having their GIS benefits suspended for being unable to make the required income statement.

Many seniors are themselves caregivers to a loved one, or rely on the caregiving of family members. In order to help make life a little more affordable for caregivers, who are overwhelmingly women, we’ll make the Canada Caregiver Tax Credit refundable. This will provide thousands of dollars to the most low- income caregivers, many of whom have given up work completely to care for a loved one.

Every senior should have a safe and affordable place to call home. Our commitment to create half a million affordable housing units in the next decade will include accessible housing that will increase choices for seniors. We’ll also support connection to community and tackle seniors’ isolation by improving seniors’ access to technology and support to stay connected with family, providing more funding for community programs that do outreach to seniors to combat isolation, working with cities to make transit more affordable and convenient, creating more community recreation spaces, and supporting innovative housing solutions like intergenerational co-housing.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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New Democrats believe that families need access to quality home care and long-term care no matter where they live. To that end, we will end private, for-profit long-term care and bring long-term care homes under the public umbrella, beginning with the federally-owned long term care company Revera.

We will work collaboratively with patients, caregivers, and provincial and territorial governments to develop national care standards for home care and long-term care, regulated by the same principles as the Canada Health Act. By doing so, a New Democrat government would legally protect access to home care and long-term care services, and ensure a consistent quality of care across the country.

This process will be backed by funding tied to meeting these standards, and include determining a core basket of home care services that will be available and covered by provincial insurance plans, and setting minimum national care standards for long- term care residents. We will also work with the provinces to develop and support workforce strategies and violence prevention to recruit and protect front-line staff, and ensure a safe working environment for personal support and health care workers.

Better long-term care starts with making sure that the workers providing this care have better wages, stable jobs and health and safety protections. Paying and protecting long term workers will be an essential part of our approach to national standards.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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To build a better future for seniors and ensure tragedies like this never happen again, we need to make sure the conditions of work reflect the care standards our seniors deserve. That’s why we will work with provinces and territories, respecting their jurisdiction, to support seniors with an investment of $9 billion over 5 years to support safer conditions for seniors and improved wages and working conditions for personal support workers.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Improve the quality and availability of long-term care homes and beds.

Implement strict infection prevention and control measures, including through more provincial and territorial facility inspections for long-term care homes.

Develop a Safe Long-Term Care Act collaboratively to ensure that seniors are guaranteed the care they deserve, no matter where they live.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Raise wages for personal support workers, including a guaranteed minimum wage of at least $25 per hour.

Train up to 50,000 new personal support workers.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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We are committed to strengthening public pensions and improving retirement security for all Canadians and providing a basic guaranteed livable income for seniors. A New Democrat government will create a Pension Advisory Commission to develop a long-term plan to enhance Old Age Security, boost the Guaranteed Income Supplement to lift all seniors out of poverty, and strengthen the Canada Pension Plan. We’ll also make automatic enrollment in OAS and GIS retroactive, so no retiree misses out on benefits that they should be receiving, and support efforts to make sure Canadians have good retirement financial literacy.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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Introduce a Career Extension Tax Credit to help seniors who want to stay in the workforce, stay in the workforce. The tax credit will let people 65 and over, who earn a working income, reduce their taxes. Seniors who earn a minimum of $5,000 at their jobs will be able to eliminate tax payable on a portion of their income and receive a tax credit of up to $1,650.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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