Political benefits and challenges of recent long-term care announcements in N.S.

Since the announcement last week that the Nova Scotia government would be adding or replacing 2,200 long-term care rooms, Tory MLAs have been spreading the news around the province.

Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Barb Adams explained to reporters that the rooms were in addition to 3,500 she announced at the beginning of the year and are intended to meet growing demand while preparing for a seniors population expected to grow through 2032, the year when the last of the new rooms will be complete.

Although she provided details about three projects, all in Halifax Regional Municipality, the minister declined to provide further information about the updated plan. The public would know more soon, she said.

Sure enough, announcements in other parts of the province by Adams's colleagues started the very next day. They included new or replacement rooms in Shelburne, Kentville, Truro, Westville and, on Monday, North Sydney and Sydney Mines.

As of Monday, about half of the 2,200 rooms had been announced, with more events planned on Tuesday in Bridgewater and Caledonia.

The Northside Community Guest Home on Queen Street in North Sydney will be replaced with a new 144-room home. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

The Tories prefer to make individual announcements in communities, Adams told reporters last Thursday following a cabinet meeting.

"We're going to let those unfold because the communities are incredibly excited," she said.

"We're going to respect their desire to be involved in that."

The Tories are hardly the first government to make announcements this way. In fact, this isn't even the first time this year that Premier Tim Houston's government has used this approach.

Education Minister Becky Druhan still has not identified the locations of all the new schools she announced in June.

Druhan has refused to say where new schools would go until a formal announcement is made. In Halifax Regional Municipality, where four new schools are planned, Druhan has declined to even say what families of schools would get new buildings.

More seniors, more demand for beds

That approach differs from Adams's in the sense that governments update their capital plan for schools almost every year and it is unusual for all the work to not be announced at once.

Adams, on the other hand, positions herself as making up for limited action by the previous government.

About 2,000 Nova Scotians are on the waiting list for a long-term care placement. The province's home care system is under strain trying to meet the needs of people waiting at home for a spot, while about 300 people are occupying much-needed hospital beds as they await a placement.

With the most recent Statistics Canada numbers projecting the province's population of people over 65 to grow from 21 per cent to 25 per cent by 2032, there is little question the new spaces are needed.

Making the announcements bit by bit comes with a political upside for the Tories; this is, after all, the party that promised to fix health care.

Construction is underway at the site of new Northside healthcare complex, which includes new a health centre and long-term care facility in North Sydney. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

During their eight years in power, the Liberals mostly rejected calls to build new long-term care beds, favouring instead to pump millions of dollars into expanding the home-care system.

On the eve of his retirement in 2021 and after the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed the shortcomings of the province's long-term care infrastructure, former premier Stephen McNeil announced plans to replace seven long-term care homes and add an additional 236 beds to the system.

That, along with a plan in 2018 for about 50 new beds as part of two replacement homes in Cape Breton Regional Municipality, was the only such announcement by the Liberals.

People prefer to stay in their homes as long as they can, McNeil regularly said. That required more support for home care. It was as true then as it is now, but it overlooked the fact that keeping people in their homes longer meant that by the time they needed a long-term care bed they were often much more frail and in less of a position to wait.

Close to a decade before all projects complete

The province was always going to need more long-term care beds due to demographics, advocates argued.

Although it's created a political opportunity for the Tories, it comes with challenges.

Because these projects must compete with other major health-care construction, they need to be spread out over more time due to a shortage of skilled labour.

Construction costs and interest rates are also much higher now than they were during the pre-COVID times and it will be at least two provincial elections before all these beds will be open. Staff will also need to be hired to operate them.

Adams and her colleagues might relish the chance to announce the new rooms, but they'd likely be happier if they were cutting ribbons to open them now, rather than hoping they'll still be around when the work is complete.

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