Private retirement home company Revera announced last week that it was implementing “interim plans” to withdraw from operating care homes in the country.

The company was once one of the largest nursing home operators in Canada.

Revera has decided to focus primarily on property management and will no longer manage senior residences in Canada.reads a note sent to Revera workers’ union officials Aug. 2.

Revera did not provide any further information about his decision to stop operating retirement homes. Information shared with unions suggests more than 80 retirement homes are part of the proposed move, more than half of them in Ontario. The others are in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

These include locations in Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto and Ottawa, among others.

The changes, which are expected in the coming months, are subject to usual regulatory approvals, including the usual due diligence checks and approvals from the health authoritiessaid the company, which will remain owners of a number of senior residences.

Revera said there will be no staffing changes at the various homes.

A spokesman for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), which represents Revera workers at several Calgary retirement homes, Edmonton and to deerreleased a statement on Tuesday.

We will continue to ensure our frontline healthcare workers have the resources they need from the employer to support their residents safely and are treated with the respect they deserve. .

Access to public healthcare is questionable

Tamara DalyProfessor of Health Policy and Justice at the University Yorkin Toronto, said access to public health care for seniors remains an issue in Canada.

They would be treated like looked after tenants and not as people with different vulnerabilities, she emphasized. Despite the lessons of the pandemic, aged care in Canada remains a largely for-profit business, whether in the senior living or nursing home space.

[Ces personnes âgées] They require a high level of care and support that they cannot access through our public health system.

Three Canadian companies plan to take over the management of dozens of retirement homes in Revera. Montreal-based Cogir, which owns hundreds of apartments, rentals and retirement homes, is expected to manage more than 60 Revera properties.

Optima company. Life was to take over the management of some residences in Alberta and British Columbia Levant Life will manage a dozen operations in Ontario.

With information from Madeline Smith