Legault government aims to fill long-term care staffing shortage by fall

MONTREAL -- The Legault government is giving itself a major challenge: to tackle the staffing shortage in long-term care residences (CHSLDs) by this fall.

The glaring lack of employees, mainly orderlies, has been a chronic problem in CHSLDs, dating back several years. The current government is not the first to want to tackle the issue.

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This fall could see, according to some experts, a second wave of COVID-19 and the Legault government wants to ensure that the current shortage situation is nothing more than a bad memory.

Since the start of the pandemic in March, the government, which even had to resort to assistance from the Canadian army, has struggled to find care staff in CHSLDs.

There institutions for the elderly were estimated to be short some 10,000 workers, even before the start of the health crisis.

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  Healthcare workers look out from Maison Herron, a long term care home in the Montreal suburb of Dorval, Que., on Saturday, April 11, 2020, as COVID-19 cases rise in Canada and around the world. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes)