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More than 60 support and administrative staff positions -- 21 of which are currently vacant -- will be impacted by the cutbacks, she said, noting doctors, who are not employees of the hospital, will not be affected.

OSMH is also examining ways to make money, including in its parking lots.

Although they discussed that incident during a press conference Thursday at the Orillia legion and referenced it in a press release, neither O'Sullivan nor Carrothers could say it relates to the care issues they are now raising. For her part, O'Sullivan said staffing levels need to be increased to ensure nursing-home residents receive better care and remain safe. To that end, the two groups are calling on local byelection candidates to commit to creating a new law that would create a four-hour daily care standard mandatory throughout the province. "With a four-hour care standard and the increased care levels that would bring, residents will be safer and better cared for," O'Sullivan said, noting the need is all the more important in a riding like Simcoe North that has many residents who are 65 and older. Oct. 1, the two organizations will join an Ontario Health Coalition ceremony at Queen's Park in memory of long-term-care residents who have been killed by other residents.

Progressive Conservative Leader and Simcoe North candidate Patrick Brown said the government needs to stop reducing long-termcare spaces and ensure homes have access to other important programs. "I would also restore physiotherapy (services for seniors) that was cut to $50 million," he said, noting his 101-year-old grandmother broke her hip five years ago but recovered thanks to physiotherapy. NDP candidate Elizabeth Van Houtte said the byelection is a chance to send a clear message to Premier Kathleen Wynne and her government.

"It's time to stop the deep, painful cuts that this Liberal government is making to health care and take real steps to improve care and safety for our aging parents and grandparents," she said. Liberal hopeful Fred Larsen wants to assure constituents the safety of residents in provincial homes remains a government priority. "The government has committed to performing annual, comprehensive inspections of every long-termcare home in Ontario to ensure residents remain safe, comfortable and cared for," he said.

In the eyes of the Ontario Health Coalition – a group dedicated to protecting public health care – the future would be undoubtedly bleak for the local facility.

Ontario seniors homes have the worst fire fatality record in North America with 45 deaths since 1980.

Four private members’ bills and three inquests have all recommended sprinklers.

Residences built after 1998 must have sprinklers but the devices are still not required in 4,000 older “care occupancies,” which house more than 200,000 seniors and other vulnerable people across Ontario including the intellectually challenged. The frail, elderly are more likely to die in fires than any other age group, experts say.

Madeleine Meilleur, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services

“Sprinklers are not the only answer. They are important, but nothing will replace the staffing levels and how they are trained in case of fire,”

There are never fire deaths in homes with sprinklers except in the rare case where a person who caused the fire is overcome by injuries, said Sean Tracey, of the U.S.-based National Fire Protection Association.

Toronto Fire Services is first conducting a survey of each care home in the city to learn the cognitive abilities of residents before conducting the mock tests.

Here is how the chiefs did the study: Firefighters visited a retirement or nursing home — sometimes without advance notice — and performed a mock evacuation based on the number of overnight staff when few employees are on shift. Firefighters ordered staff to conduct a fire drill. Using a stopwatch, they tested staff’s ability to move residents out of the building or behind a firewall

Oak Terrace long-term care home, a government-licensed nursing home operated by the Revera chain, failed a test in October 2010.

After fire officials sent a letter to each member of Revera’s board of directors, the home decided to install sprinklers

Revera has installed sprinklers in 85 per cent of its 200 retirement and nursing homes across Canada

Homes that fail mock evacuation tests are hit with legal orders under the Fire Prevention and Protection Act, telling them to hire enough staff to be able to safely evacuate 24 hours a day — or install sprinklers.

Sprinkler installation costs roughly $3 a square foot. That translates to $40,000 for a 30-person home or about $110,000 for a 155-person home.

Fragile residents, combined with inadequate staffing and the fiery nature of materials in modern furniture, like the foam padding in couches, are a recipe for disaster.

In 2010, a year after the Orillia fire killed four residents (and left two brain dead), the government began a consultation on fire safety. Meilleur said she expects the report will be released in June.

an early draft said most respondents (more than 230 comments came from firefighters, retirement homes, municipalities and advocates) agreed that sprinklers should be mandatory in all care homes.

“If 45 children had died in fires would we still be waiting for the government to take action?”

residents, some drugged for a night’s sleep

After a very lengthy review, where all parties had a chance to make their case, the province's Health Professions Advisory Council agreed with CUPE and other front-line paramedic organizations to recommend to the minister of health that a regulatory college not be created. It vexes many of us why the motives of top managers of paramedic services who have consistently advocated for a regulatory college as an additional means of discipline and control over paramedics are not questioned.

Why the provincial government would allow them to interject and upend the current goodwill that exists between the province's paramedics who overwhelmingly oppose a college is also a mystery.

Equally confounding is why a small voluntary group that does not represent the vast majority of paramedics in the workplace with employers or at the government level is pushing for a regulatory college. That they could support a proposal that would open up the profession to workers operating pretend ambulances is not in the best interest of the public or the paramedic profession.

Ontario needs dedicated paramedic services exclusively focused on providing top-notch emergency medical response. We do not need a backdoor attempt to undermine the profession and we are saddened that some wish to revive this issue yet again. Fred Hahn President, CUPE Ontario JeffVan Pelt Chair, CUPE Paramedic Committee of Ontario