99 of Ontario nursing homes now have air conditioning in residents rooms minister

Nearly 99 per cent of nursing homes in Ontario now have air conditioning in resident rooms, almost a year after the province set a deadline for the requirement.

Long-Term Care Minister Paul Calandra says only nine of the 625 nursing homes in Ontario remain without air conditioning in resident rooms.

Three of those are expected to have units installed by the end of May, and three more are on track to have A-C this summer.

Two homes have electrical capacity issues but are being redeveloped and will eventually have A-C.

The government has granted exemptions to those eight homes and recently fined a ninth one.

Legislation passed in 2021 required homes to install air conditioning in all resident rooms by June 2022.

Calandra says the province gives homes funding for air conditioning and is spending some 200-million-dollars on the program.

The government also recently passed regulations that allow it to slap higher fines on nursing homes not in compliance with the law.