Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has followed the plight of Roger Foley for a long time. In June, 2025; EPC promoted the online petition - Roger Foley needs to be fed (Petition Link).
Roger Foley, who lives with spino-cerebellar ataxia type 14, has been living at the London Health Sciences Centre for almost 10 years. Previously, Roger lived in his home and received attendant services from an agency that was contracted to provide care. Roger ended up in the hospital based on the substandard care that he received from the agency.
Roger applied for inclusion in the Self-Managed Attendant Services program that would give Roger direct funding to enabled him to hire his own care-givers. This is a program that exists in Ontario. Roger was turned down by the Ministry of Health for this program.
Hon Sylvia Jones, has been Ontario's Minister of Health and Deputy Premier since June 2022. In June, 2008; Sylvia Jones, as a member of the Conservative opposition, expressed strong support for self-managed home care funding.
Contact Hon Sylvia Jones at: sylvia.jones@pc.ola.org and state:
Roger Foley has been living at the London Health Sciences Centre for almost 10 years. Roger wants to leave the hospital and receive care in his home.
Now is the time to implement change and approve him for Self-Managed funding for Attendant Services.
Self-Managed direct funding will provide him the right resources for less money and enable him to leave the hospital and move home. Hospitals are the most expensive setting for health care service delivery and, quite frankly, not the best type of care for stable individuals with a disability.
Allowing him to go home with self-managed funding for attendant services will enable him to fully participate in the community.
Here is the video of her June 2008 speech in the Ontario Legislature:
Here is what Sylvia Jones says in the (legislature) video:
Ms. Sylvia Jones: It's a pleasure to rise today to support the member for Wellington Halton Hills on this important resolution to add attendant services to the provincial wait time strategy.
For many years, experts in health care have told members of all three parties that our health system is too focused on hospital beds. Hospitals provide wonderful acute care for the citizens of this province, but it is the most expensive setting for health care service delivery and, quite frankly, not the best type of care for stable individuals with a disability.
As the Ontario Community Support Association highlighted in their August 13 press conference, people on the attendant services wait list put pressure on the health care system because they remain inappropriately stuck waiting in long-term-care homes, acute care beds, chronic care hospitals and rehabilitation facilities, all at a much higher cost to taxpayers. It's important that members in this House recognize that a failure to support today's resolution to make attendant services a priority by adding it to the provincial wait time strategy will result in higher costs to the taxpayer.
At the same news conference in August, the Ontario Community Support Association told us that the wait list for attendant services is four to 10 years. For four to 10 years, individuals with disabilities and their families are not getting the services they need. They remain in hospital or long-term-care beds, or their families, many with aging parents, struggle to continue to provide for their daily care needs. So even though we know that it is more cost-effective and more appropriate to have individuals cared for at home and even though we know attendant services allow people with physical disabilities to actively participate in their communities, go to school, get a job and contribute in other ways, we continue to focus our health care dollars in other areas.
This issue is most important across the province, but it also touches specific families in Dufferin Caledon. This summer, I met with a constituent from Honeywood who receives the Ministry of Health's direct funding for attendant services. I suppose you could call her one of the lucky ones. The program is administered by the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto. She tells me it took four years for her application to be approved, and this year, when she applied for a slight modification of her level of care because her health had changed, she was told that the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto was not even considering 2008 applications; they were still reviewing 2007 applications. Why is that? The Centre for Independent Living has a huge waiting list, and this Liberal government has not increased their funding since they were elected in 2003. So CILT is trying to serve as many Ontarians as it can with too few resources. In fact, my constituent believes that something needs to happen long-term care or worse for an individual with direct funding before the next person on the waiting list can receive funding for attendant services. My constituent wanted me to know that she feels this is a wonderful program that allows her to routinely participate in the community and live in her home. For example, I know that she is an active member of the Dufferin county accessibility advisory committee, and the Honeywood community. She came to see me because she wanted to brief me on this issue, and she believes that other people with a physical disability need to have the same opportunity that she has.
In addition to direct funding not being a priority for the Ministry of Health, my constituents are also having issues with funding from community care access centres. The boundary change introduced by the Liberal government has resulted in my constituents being asked to do with less service. Their disability has not changed, but the level of service being provided has.
An Orangeville resident who is a quadriplegic as a result of a car accident had been receiving home care since 1995. Under the former Waterloo-Wellington-Dufferin CCAC, he received morning and night visits, seven days a week, to assist with personal care. Under Central West CCAC, he was discharged from nursing and occupational therapy. Respite care was eliminated. His case is under review to determine what other services can be cut. The minister responded to us in correspondence by suggesting that he use the CCAC complaint process and to call the long-term-care action line.
Another constituent who happens to suffer from ALS has been told he was receiving too much care from the Waterloo-Wellington-Dufferin CCAC. He's been told his CCAC hours are being cut and a referral has been made to the March of Dimes to make up the care hour difference. That's right. The CCAC is referring people to a non-profit agency and expects them to provide front-line care, rather than our universal health care system. The March of Dimes also has a waiting list. So now the Central West CCAC has agreed to provide attendant care hours, but only until the March of Dimes can implement its services. He also needs respite care hours, but of course there's no support for his wife.
All three of these examples are alarming. I'm sure that members of all three parties have similar experiences from their own ridings. So what are we going to do about it? Now is the time to look at implementing the change that health care experts have been advocating for more than a decade. Now is the time to provide Ontarians with physical disabilities with the services they deserve. These citizens can either be taken care of at home with the right resources for less money or be forced into long-term care, or a hospital setting, which puts added strain on an already beleaguered health system and doesn't allow individuals with disabilities to fully participate in our communities.
I encourage all members to support the resolution of the member from Wellington Halton Hills. Let's make attendant care services a priority by adding it to the provincial wait time strategy.
Hon Sylvia Jones, has been Ontario's Minister of Health and Deputy Premier since June 2022. Why has she abandoned Roger Foley by forcing him to live at the London Health Sciences Centre rather than enabling him to be cared for at home?
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