Seven in Ten (72%) Ontarians Believe Increase in Funding for Ontario Long-Term Care Should Be Government Priority

Toronto, ONTARIO - A poll conducted late last year by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of the Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLTCA) and released today, indicates that seven in ten (72%) Ontarians believe that funding for long term care in the province should be a priority for the Ontario government.

Respondents were informed that according to a government funded `Level of Service' study of long term care service comparing a number of international jurisdictions, that Saskatchewan was ranked at the mid-point of service provided and that it would require an additional $550 million in funding in order for Ontario to match the level of service provided in Saskatchewan. Women (78%) are more likely than men (66%) are to rank this as a priority for the government.

Nine in ten (91%) Ontarians express agreement with the view that "a government program should be put in place to allow existing long term care homes to be re-developed to higher standards" that are in place for new long term care homes being built in the province.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted for the Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLTCA) between October 15th and October 23rd, 2002. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,001 adult Ontarians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Ontario population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Ontario population according to the 1996 Census data.

To view the factum and detailed tables, please open the attached PDF files.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900