Families scramble as retirement home at centre of fraud investigation announces closure

Norwich retirement home to close Trillium Care announces its closure just months after several of its residents lost thousands in fraud, CTV London's Bryan Bicknell reports.

An Oxford County retirement residence at the centre of a fraud investigation has announced it will be closing its doors next month, leaving residents and their families with just a couple of weeks to find alternate accommodations.

Miranda Guitard’s grandmother in-law lives at Trillium Care in Norwich. Guitard said that she now has to break the news to the 90 year old that she has to pack her bags and be gone from the place she now calls home.

“It’s a matter of getting her into an environment where she is taken care of, and where I don’t have to get a phone call every single night because she’s elevated, or she wants to get out because she’s locked in there and she has nowhere to go and nothing to do,” said Guitard.

The elderly woman was among victims caught up in an alleged embezzlement scam at Trillium Care over the summer, currently under investigation by the OPP.

A letter from the home to residents states:

“Due to an emergency lack of financial resources necessary to sustain daily operations, we must close the facility. This decision was not made lightly, and every effort was explored to prevent this outcome. The home is scheduled to officially close its doors on November 11, 2024.”

In Guitard’s case, she had already been looking for a long-term care home to place her loved one into, but the impending closure places an even greater urgency on the family.

CTV News spoke with the manager of Trillium Care Norwich over the phone, Davyd Yushkin. He turned down our request for an interview, stating he had nothing more to say on the matter.

We also reached out to the Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority for an interview, but it declined. The organization responded in an email, saying in part:

“The Retirement Homes Act requires that a licensee provide at least 120 days notice to residents and to RHRA before a home is slated for closure. Licensees who choose not to follow this are in breach of the Act.

Our priority is the protection of the home’s 18 residents and we continue to use all our regulatory powers to ensure their safety and well being.”

According to the Ontario Health Coalition, there is little provincial oversight for private retirement homes. “I’m sure a lot of these people thought ‘oh well we’ve got these health care services and we should be getting some modicum of care for our loved one,” remarked Peter Bergmanis of the Health Coalition’s London chapter. “But they operate on a for profit basis and they really aren’t under any other legislation other than the landlord tenant act,” he explained.

In the meantime, Miranda Guitard said that her family lost more than $6,000 in the alleged fraud at Trillium Care Norwich. OPP said the total amount lost to numerous families amounts to more than $50,000.

“I don’t know what the outcome’s going to be, but I hope for my family we get that back, and other families as well because the amount far exceeds even what we’ve experienced,” said Guitard.

Oxford OPP said that the fraud investigation is ongoing.