Public Talks + Broadcasts + Print Media
Dr. Tamara Daly is available to present at public events, provide interviews to media outlets and speak at academic conferences.
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Prentice Institute Webinar , Danièle Behn Smith, Matt Bowes, Tamara Daly, Candace Nykiforuk, Integrating Data into Health Policy, Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy, (Sept 25, 2025)
York Region Community Health Lecture Keynote Panel MC Jill Dempsey, Tamara Daly, Mary Fox and Dmitry Petrov, Aging into the Future, York University, Mackenzie Health, City of Vaughan, Vaughan City Hall, (Nov 6, 2023 6:30 – 8 pm)
Ontario Association of Architects, Architecturally Speaking PODCAST (Feb 1, 2024) Designing for Dignity – Perspectives on Care and Community, Dr. Terri Peters, Assistant Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University, Dr. Tamara Daly, Professor, York University, Mike Ladyk, Architect, Partner 3rdline.studio, Nicole Peirce, Architect, Partner Architecture
Institute for Research on Public Policy, Keynote Panel Dr. Tamara Daly with André Picard, and Dr. Samir Sinha, (May 13, 2021) Webinar, A Roadmap to Long-term Care Reform in Canada
CPAC Town Hall Dr. Tamara Daly with Laura Tamblyn-Watts, and Abdu Sharkawy spoke at a on Long-Term-Care: Green Party Leader Annamie Paul, A Conversation on National Standards with Experts and Advocates (March 3, 2021)
Ontario Non-profit Network Public Webinar, Frontline Care Workers and Decent Work, Paula Tenaglia, (Operations Director Action Against Hunger), Connie Ndlovu, (PSW working 15 years in the nonprofit sector), and Tamara Daly,“Supporting frontline and essential workers: the importance of decent work during a pandemic” (May 26, 2020)
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Select Broadcasts & Print Media Stories
Zoomer Radio by Libby Znaimer (Jan 26, 2025): Having cataract surgery is stressful but even before it happens you can be faced with a number of options and fees. Dr. Tamara Daly, Professor of Health Policy and Equity at York University, spoke with Libby Znaimer about how to navigate your way through.
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Toronto Star by Kenyon Wallace (June 8, 2024): “Another Toronto nursing home says it will shut down, as deadline for 31 licenses draws nearer”
According to Tamara Daly, “The people of Ontario collectively pay for long-term care so the people of Ontario are entitled to know this information as soon as it’s available,” said Daly, who has studied the long-term-care industry for more than two decades. “Can you imagine if a community wasn’t told until the last minute that its hospital was closing?”
She also questions whether it is in the interests of Ontario seniors to rely on a care model where more than half of the province’s nursing homes are privately owned — many by real estate investment trusts and private equity firms whose priority is to make money for shareholders.
“We can’t actually count on these organizations if what they’re worried about is being able to fund their buildings or how much money they can earn from selling their real estate,” Daly added.
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CBC, by Madeline Smith, (Aug 9, 2023) Canadian care-home provider Revera to ‘transition out’ of managing retirement homes. …Tamara Daly, a professor of health policy and equity at York University, said access to publicly funded care for seniors continues to be an issue in Canada, leaving some with few options but paying for higher levels of care in retirement homes.
“They’re treated like tenants who live in apartment buildings who happen to be getting care, rather than people who have a variety of vulnerabilities who need a high level of care and support but who are unable to access it through our publicly funded system,” Daly said.
“Despite the lessons of the pandemic, aged care remains a largely for-profit business in Canada, whether it’s in the retirement home or the nursing home sector.”
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Government of Canada (March 16, 2023) and CIHR, Government of Canada announces $38.3M research investment to support brain health, “Given that most Canadians are in some way affected by dementia, this CIHR research initiative is significant. It joins together the collective strengths and concerns of an impressive array of government and non-profit partners, and it will provide researchers a platform to think creatively about ways to reduce dementia’s prevalence and improve access to care services. Importantly, it will consider the well-being of family-and-friend care partners, who are foundational to dementia care, but receive less attention to their own needs than is warranted.” – Dr. Tamara Daly, Director, York University Centre for Aging Research and Education
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The Local, by Inori Roy, (March 13, 2023) The Private Deals Remaking Long-Term Care, “We are underwriting those homes,” says Tamara Daly, director of the York University Center for Aging Research and Education. “The public system is, in effect, helping to pay for the building of these long-term care facilities…For 30 years, we’ll be paying for their buildings, and the cost of care, and we’ll have nothing to show for it on the public side.”
The shift in the eldercare sector, academics and advocates argue, is fuelled in part by this growth in funding, and pivotal changes in the LTC industry. The provincial government is issuing new 30-year licenses to replace the licenses covering 31,000 beds expiring in 2025, and approving the development of tens of thousands more beds in the next decade, to keep up with the province’s rapidly aging population. In order to receive a new license, a LTC home has to be up to date with 2015 LTC home design standards, meaning older homes in poorer condition require additional investment to bring them up to par. The per-diems mean LTC companies get to recoup those expenses; but paired with the complexities of regulation, the up-front costs make it more challenging for non-profit and independently-owned LTC homes to survive in the industry. “It makes sense to me that we’re seeing this kind of consolidation,” Daly says.
“In fact, the Ministry refuses to shed any light on their approval process for a transaction of this nature—who makes the decision, what factors they take into consideration, whether they invite any affected parties to share their insights. These are all the right questions, Daly says. “The fact that neither you nor I know what is happening in terms of these licensing agreements is the problem.”
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Toronto Star, by Megan Ogilvie and Kenyon Wallace (July 19, 2023) Federal Health Minister steps into Canada’s Raging debate over private health care, “Health-system experts and advocates say it’s crucial for the federal government to keep a close watch on the expansion of for-profit care in this country — and to use clawbacks as a lever to ensure provinces comply with the Canada Health Act.
“When the provinces aren’t acting as they should, then it’s the federal government’s job, on behalf of Canadians, to step in and ensure that provinces do better,” said Tamara Daly, a health services researcher and professor at York University’s School of Health Policy and Management.”
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CBC News, by Matthew Pierce (Sept 14, 2022), More than 1 in 5 residents in long-term care given antipsychotics without a diagnosis, data shows, … “The medication is intended to sedate, and is used off-label to combat a variety of behaviours, from wandering to insomnia.
“Antipsychotics have been referred to as chemical restraints,” said Tamara Daly, the director of York University’s Centre for Aging Research and Education. Those numbers had previously been steadily decreasing. In 2019-2020, just over 20 per cent of long-term care residents were receiving antipsychotics off-label, the result of increased awareness around the issue, which had many homes using the medications more judiciously.
But the numbers have since been on an upward trajectory. In 2020-21, 22 per cent of residents were receiving antipsychotic medications while having no clinical indication of their necessity, according to CIHI. Preliminary statistics for 2021-22 show that this trend has continued, reaching 23.9 per cent.
These statistics are quality indicators, Daly said.
“When we see an excessive amount of prescribing for antipsychotics, where there’s no clinical reason or disease state to be prescribing it, that would be a flag,” she said. “It’s often an indicator that people in the home are being managed chemically.”
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CBC News, by Laura McQuillan, Can Ontario force hospital patients into long-term care homes? It’s complicated, (Aug 26, 2022) ….Following the publication of this story, the Ministry of Long-Term Care on Friday night told CBC News that patients who were temporarily transferred would be “given a crisis priority designation on the waitlists for their preferred homes,” contradicting Calandra’s previous comment that the plan would not make “any changes to the priority waiting list.” It was not clear why the policy had changed.
Experts say they are concerned that shuffling patients between homes could be detrimental to their health.
“Temporary, at this stage of life, actually becomes dangerous. Because what happens, especially with cognitive decline, is that any moves come with the increased risk of death,” said Tamara Daly, director of York University’s Centre for Aging Research and Education.
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Zoomer Radio, by Libby Znaimer (June 28, 2022) Canada’s Pandemic Response, Canada, and especially Ontario, faced some of the most restrictive COVID-19 measures as well. However, at the same time, what is also quite clear is that our long term care sectors were hit hard by the pandemic. So, how does our government track record on protecting LTC residents compare to that of other countries? Libby Znaimer is joined by Dr. Fahad Razak, The Scientific Director of the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table and York University’s Dr. Tamara Daly who is the Director of the University’s Centre for Aging Research and Education and then, Dr. Prabhat Jha who is Epidemiologist and Faculty member at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
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Toronto Star, Marco Chown Oved, Kenyon Wallace, Ed Tubb (may 27, 2022) Doug Ford is spending billions to expand nursing home chains with some of the worst COVID-19 death rates …”Ford’s long-term-care expansion plan mirrors that of the Conservatives under Mike Harris back in 1998 when the province put out 20,000 long-term-care beds for tender. To encourage construction, the government offered to subsidize construction costs with public money over 20 years. In the end, operators — for-profit, non-profit and municipal — would own and operate homes and beds partially paid for by Ontario taxpayers.
The plan worked. Dozens of operators took the government up on its offer. About 60 per cent of beds at that time went to for-profit operators, with the most going to Extendicare, Leisureworld (later to become Sienna) and CPL REIT (later to become Revera).
The Ford government’s plan is essentially the same, but this time around operators will be paid back over 25 years.
“I have déjà vu of 1998,” said Tamara J. Daly, professor of health policy and equity at York University who has been studying long-term care for 20 years. “It’s essentially more of the same. The reason it’s shocking is because we know so much more, or we at least have more evidence to show that it’s a failed model.”
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CBC Marketplace, Erica Johnson, Katie Pedersen, Tiffany Foxcroft, (March 18, 2022) She begged for help as husband struggled: why home care is failing thousands while companies profit, …””We don’t publicly report or collect home care data in the way we do for long-term care,” said Tamara Daly, a political economist and health services researcher at the York University in Toronto.
“That is a massive problem.” …. Those contracts fall under a provision of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act that shields them from public scrutiny.”
“These companies have no pressure to be transparent, so we really can’t say that the money is going for good care,” said Daly. “We publicly fund this. We’re entitled to know this information.” …. “Those contracts fall under a provision of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act that shields them from public scrutiny.
“These companies have no pressure to be transparent, so we really can’t say that the money is going for good care,” said Daly. “We publicly fund this. We’re entitled to know this information.”
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André Picard, Health Reporter and Columnist for the Globe & Mail, Author of Neglected No More: The Urgent Need to Improve the lives of Canada’s Elders in the Wake of a Pandemic, 2021
“Every country and every province has great and poor providers” says Tamara Daly, a political economist and health services researcher at York University in Toronto. “There are fantastic not-for-profits and great for-profits homes, and there are some in each category who simply shouldn’t be operating”. But her bottom line is that, like other health institutions funded by the state, such as hospitals, care homes should not be businesses generating profits. “The research is clear on this: there is no doubt that reducing profit-taking would improve care, and we really need to improve care” (p. 51)
…”The difficulty is that there is not much data to answer those fundamental questions. “In long-term care, we have public funding but private data,” says Dr. Daly of York University. I’m a big fan of stats and data, but we don’t collect the right kind and we don’t use the data we have properly” (p. 58)
“For the most part, families — which almost always means wives, daughters and granddaughters — provide care for loved ones at home until they burn out. Caregiving imposes steep costs on women’s health, their family lives and their careers. That’s not the way the ‘care journey’ (to use a bit of a hackneyed term) should unfold. ” We need to allow families to be families. We need to provide supports” says Tamara Daly, a political economist and health services research at York University.” (p. 166-7)
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France 24, by François Rihouay, COVID-19: One year on, Canada learns lessons from high death toll in care homes, During the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Canada, seventy percent of the country’s deaths took place in long-term care facilities for the elderly, a tragic world record. Tamara Daly is interviewed.
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CBC Radio, Ontario Morning, 99.1 FM (March 5, 2021) by Julianne Hazelwood, interviews Tamara Daly about Long-term care and COVID-19.
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CBC News, Melissa Mancini, David Common, Katie Pedersen, William Wolfe-Wylie (March 3, 2021) In face of deadly pandemic, Ontario long-term care homes continue breaking COVID-19 safety rules, …”That for-profit operators are over-represented in the findings isn’t surprising to Tamara Daly, the director of York University’s Centre for Aging Research and Education. She has been studying the differences between for-profit and non-profit care for years.”
“…That for-profit operators are over-represented in the findings isn’t surprising to Tamara Daly, the director of York University’s Centre for Aging Research and Education. She has been studying the differences between for-profit and non-profit care for years.”
Ten homes were cited for denying entry to essential caregivers. Short staffing in homes has been well documented, and restricting family access means residents often don’t get the care they need, said Daly.
It’s also a quality of life issue, she said.
“Being in long-term care is very different than being in a hospital bed,” she said. “You’re there to live. And I think what we essentially did is we removed that part of their care, the living part, the part that makes life worthwhile.”
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Toronto Star, by Kenyon Wallace, Even ‘when things were good’ families were raising red flags. Inside four years’ worth of violations at Tendercare long-term care home,
“Oftentimes when you read these reports, it seems as though it’s the staff that is doing the wrong thing, when in fact it’s the way the home is managed. Management set the conditions within which staff have to perform this care work,” said Tamara Daly, professor of health policy and equity and director of the York University Centre for Aging Research & Education.
“There are no incentives for being better than mediocre and no real repercussions for being mediocre or worse.”
Daly noted that inspections in recent years have tended to become narrowly focused on specific complaints or incidents in homes that focus on risk, rather than more holistic reviews in which the overall care of residents is taken into consideration.
“The challenge that everybody has noted and that COVID has revealed is that the risk system and the complaint system doesn’t pick up on infection prevention and control,” she said.
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CBC Marketplace, by Melissa Mancini, Katie Pedersen, and David Common, These nursing home chains have the highest COVID-19 death rates in Ontario, data analysis finds.
“…Some municipal homes that have redeveloped have done so with the help of city and town councils chipping in from the local tax base, said Lisa Levin, the CEO of Advantage, a group representing the interests of non-profit nursing homes in Ontario.
“Not-for-profits have to fundraise if they’re going to redevelop their homes. They have to fundraise extensively. And the ones that have been able to redevelop have been successful at doing that.”
But it is a complicated issue, said Tamara Daly, director of York University’s Centre for Aging Research and Education.
In a small home, the subsidies to rebuild can top $20 million in public funding over 25 years for capital investments on top of what the government pays a home for care, said Daly.
“We the public, pay for, with public funds, these buildings, and they are owned privately,” she said.
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Huffpost, by Emma Paling, Ontario PCs have raked in $30K from big nursing home lobbyists, “Ontario relies more on private operators to run these homes than other provinces do and the industry has a long history of hiring lobbyists with connections to provincial politicians” and is linked to article by Tamara Daly: Dancing the Two-Step in Ontario’s Long-term Care Sector: More Deterrence-oriented Regulation = Ownership and Management Consolidation
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Fight Back with Libby Znaimer, Radio Broadcast and PODCAST, (Oct 22, 2020) Ontario Long-term Care Homes Face COVID-19 Outbreak, interview with Tamara Daly
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The Canadian Press, Liam Casey, (Oct 20, 2020) . Reprinted in Toronto Star, Global News, Toronto Sun, Ottawa Sun, CP24, Prince George Citizen, Brandon Sun, 570 News, City News Kitchener, City News Toronto, City News Vancouver, City News Calgary, Times Colonist, Windsor Star, Winnipeg Free Press,
“Several experts questioned whether it is appropriate for taxpayers to insure for-profit insurance companies and thereby cover any claim against long-term care homes.
Tamara Daly, the director of the York University Centre for Aging Research and Education, said taxpayers providing insurance to the long-term care industry is not workable.
“I think it would be a knee-jerk reaction to publicly fund liability insurance,” she said.
Daly and Samir Sinha, the director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing and a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, said public money would be better spent fixing the long-term care home system in the province rather than fixing the insurance issues.”
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CTV News Weekend, by Angie Seth, (Oct 18, 2020) Second Wave Concerns for Long-term Care interview with Tamara Daly
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Toronto Star, by Josh Rubin, (Sept 15, 2020) Canada’s largest private retirement home operator wants to stop quarantining new residents – but experts say that could put seniors at risk
York University professor Tamara Daly, chair of the university’s Centre for Aging Research and Education, said it’s no coincidence Chartwell wants the 14-day quarantine for new residents eliminated: It’s cutting into the company’s bottom line.
“This is a business that’s heavily reliant on bricks and mortar buildings, and getting more residents in. So not being able to maintain that occupancy level is a threat to the business,” said Daly.
…”Getting rid of the quarantine requirement would be a mistake, Daly said.
“Policy-makers need to be very clear about whether they’re protecting dollars and cents, or people’s health. If the government lifts the quarantine requirement, that would show it’s about dollars and cents,” she said.”
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Global News, by Andrew Russell, (June 26, 2020) 271 coronavirus deaths could have been prevented by removing 4-bed care rooms, study suggests,
Ontario long-term care homes have been hit particularly hard with more than 1,800 resident deaths and over 1,900 staff sickened by the virus.
Tamara Daly, professor of health policy and director of the York University Centre for Aging Research & Education, said the paper reveals some “interesting correlations” that need to be furthered explored. Daly was not involved in the study.
“Given that nearly half of the older homes didn’t have an outbreak and just over 30 per cent of the homes that did have an outbreak, that are older, controlled it raises really important questions,” she said.
“Given that nearly half of the older homes didn’t have an outbreak and just over 30 per cent of the homes that did have an outbreak, that are older, controlled it raises really important questions,” she said.
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Georgina Post, by James Burrows (July1, 2020) COVID-19 has exposed major faults in Ontario’s long-term care, expert says
…”According to CBC News, for-profit homes were more likely to suffer an outbreak (48.2% for-profit; 47.9% non-profit; 44% municipal) and had a higher percentage of resident deaths due to COVID-19 than non-profit homes or municipal homes (5.0% for-profit; 3.0% non-profit; 1.1% municipal).
Tamara Daly, a professor at York University in the School of Health Policy and Management and the Director of the York University Centre for Aging Research and Education (YU-CARE), believes understaffing, working conditions, and government oversight are key problems that need to be addressed.
“I think that COVID exposed all of the existing faults that were already exposed in the system,” she said. “COVID was like water in a sidewalk full of cracks. It went everywhere that the cracks were.”
Ms. Daly has been researching and writing on government policy and long-term care for many years. She believes the difference in health outcomes between for-profit and not-for-profit facilities, run by charitable organizations and municipalities, mostly comes down to working conditions and how the two sectors have approached staffing.
“What we see at an aggregate level is that when funds are taken out of the system, and a portion of those fees are used to pay shareholders and executive compensation, you don’t have as much money left within the organization. Typically, non-profits and municipal homes use fees to support higher staffing levels and in for-profit homes that money is typically being taken out of the organization in the form of profit and compensation.
“As a result, you get higher staffing levels when you’re in a not-for-profit situation. Better staffing in many homes has served as a sort of bulwark against the system level understaffing that exists.”
While Ms. Daly believes front line staffing levels can help explain the difference in outcomes, additional resources must also be devoted to cleaning in LTC facilities.
“COVID means more work; it’s a lot of work to don and doff PPE. It takes time to do infection control properly. We can’t just think about the front line workers. We have to think about the number of people who are in the home doing the cleaning because the cleaning regimen has to be bumped to prevent an outbreak. So, if we think in terms of more simple and straightforward responses, then we would do a better job of responding to COVID.”
According to Ms. Daly, oversight of long-term care has also changed in recent years, and this has led to even less pressure on many homes to improve conditions.
“About two years ago, the ministry went away from what are called Resident Quality Inspections (RQIs). Only 9 RQIs have been performed in the past year, and we have 625 homes across the province. The RQI is a bit more of a 360-degree examination. They go in, and they spend about two weeks investigating the home … that stopped happening to the extent that it should, and we’ve had more what are called critical incident inspections or complaint inspections, and those are very circumscribed.”
Even if problems are discovered, Ms. Daly said there are few enforcement mechanisms available.
“We have a fairly toothless enforcement capability. Our inspectors didn’t really shut down homes until it came to COVID. It’s very rarely used, where the ministry takes over a home or stops allowing new residents to be admitted. We do have some consistently non-compliant operators, and you can go through the inspection reports, and you can see that non-compliance.”
According to Ms. Daly, revamping oversight with a focus on staffing levels and working conditions could go a long way to improve overall care and how COVID-19 is effectively managed in Ontario’s LTC homes.
“I think if you were to start to publicly report on turnover rates and the proportion of time without an RN, you’d start to see organizations changing some of their behaviour. When you pay attention to the working conditions, you can at least lay the groundwork for good quality care to happen. But if you have poor working conditions, the only way you can get good quality care is completely on the back of the workers.””
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