The Toronto Star – December 20, 2020

Chartwell staff, both in our residences and our corporate support teams have demonstrated heroic
dedication to the safety and well-being of our residents in these extraordinary circumstances. They
have, and continue to, do everything possible and deserve public recognition for their incredible
compassion and courage to support our residents and their families and to comply and often exceed
government and public health authorities directives. Despite these tremendous efforts, sadly we have
not been able to protect all our residents from the impact of this pandemic, the likes of which has not
been seen for over 100 years. We offer our deepest condolences to those who have lost their loved
ones to this disease and share in their grief.

Over half of our long-term care homes that have experienced COVID-19 outbreaks have not had any
fatalities from COVID-19. Tragically, in other homes, we experienced loss of life as a result of this
horrific and incredibly virulent disease. Two of our LTC homes located in the Greater Toronto Area
(GTA), which has had the highest community transmission rates in the province, faced the extreme
heartbreak of prolonged outbreaks and as a result experienced higher rates of fatalities. Both of these
residences were older “C” class homes, with three-and four-bed ward rooms. These two homes went
into outbreak early in April 2020 at the onset of the declared pandemic and well before the world had
developed any understanding of the behavior of this virus, in particular, the asymptomatic nature of the
transmission of the virus was simply not understood by anyone, anywhere.

Numerous studies1 have concluded that the number and severity of COVID-19 outbreaks in Long Term
Care (LTC) residences is related to three key factors:
• community spread in the area where homes are located,
• age and design of the physical plant, and
• outbreaks in the early days of the pandemic.

Chartwell’s experience is consistent with these studies. We operate 23 long term care homes in Ontario
with 3,3009 beds. 70% of our beds are located in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) which has the highest
community transmission in Ontario.

Throughout the pandemic, Chartwell has been successful in hiring almost 2,000 new employees.
Staffing in our Ontario long term homes, measured in hours per resident day, has increased by 25% from
February 2020 to September 2020 to address the exceptional demands and vigilance required to
maintain resident and staff safety as result of COVID-19. Our additions to staff levels include every
single department as each are critical to the holistic care of our residents including nursing staff,
personal support workers, resident support aides, housekeeping, dietary and maintenance staff – every

1
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/33/E946
https://chartwell.com/en/blog/2020/09/covid-19-pandemic-in-long-term-care
https://cdn.reveraliving.com/-/media/files/pandemic-response/expert-advisory-
report.pdf?rev=ab07bda3417340739bd72a2a108ddf72&hash=C82A36E935031F37892DEE02E2B59B11&_ga=2.15
6794813.721684366.1607352800-1859844612.1600352201
single employee is crucial to the wellbeing of our residents. We want to ensure that the incredible
efforts of all of our staff are recognized for their dedication and commitment.

Revenue in Ontario Long Term Care is 100% controlled by the government, for every single operator
regardless of ownership. That said, municipal homes can and do issue public debt and increase taxes to
pay for similar levels of service. Not-for-profits fund their investments in long term care through debt
and donations. No profit can be generated from resident care in Ontario long term care, regardless of
ownership, the same rules apply to all. It is fully audited by qualified third party auditors and the line by
line financial report is transparently disclosed in every home as a requirement of legislation. What is not
spent on care services must be returned to government annually. As previously established in several
studies2 direct care hours, average wages and clinical outcomes are not different among private and not
for profit homes. This is a fallacy that must be corrected on the public record.

Long term care represents less than 10% of Chartwell’s portfolio. Chartwell has a consistently strong
record of exceeding performance with respect to publicly reported Quality Indicators, with better results
than Ontario’s provincial averages.

The average length of full-time employee service in Chartwell’s long-term care homes is 13.2 years. We
offer pensions, paid vacation, good extended health and dental benefits and sick leaves. In long term
care, our part time employees receive the same wage rate and proportionate benefits or a cash
payment in lieu. We are so fortunate that 70% of our full time employees have worked for us for more
than 10 years and have remained dedicated through this crisis to the care of their residents and families
despite the consistently negative media portrayal of those that have chosen a vocation to care for
Canada’s elderly with reverence and respect.

We appreciate the various programs governments have offered in response to the pandemic, including
the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (“CEWS”) that is designed to support employers in maintaining
employment in the face of dramatic declines in revenues which would otherwise normally result in
layoffs. Across our portfolio in Canada, we have maintained or increased staffing levels during the
pandemic and provided quality jobs for over 16,000 individuals to support our residents and their
families during the pandemic, despite additional costs in all of our residences as well as significantly
reduced occupancies and revenues in our residences.

For the nine month period ended September 30, 2020, unfunded costs for pandemic-related expenses
including increased staffing levels and personal protective equipment amount to more than $10 million
across our portfolio, $2 million of which relates to our Ontario long term care operations. Further, the
impact of reduced occupancy from pandemic related disruption and restrictions in our retirement
residences amounted to over $21 million. All these losses are borne by our unitholders, the majority of
whom are individual Canadians, and many of whom are retirees who use distributions to cover living
expenses.

The pandemic has impacted the entire economy, and society as a whole, including the Canadians who
are our unitholders. Our unitholders have provided capital to support the investment in infrastructure
for providing necessary and critical health and social services to our residents, Canada’s older adults,
with a reasonable expectation to receive a very modest return in the form of a distribution.
Distributions on invested capital, while not a contractual obligation, are not dissimilar to mortgage
payments to lenders, for which the majority of municipalities are obligated to on behalf of their
taxpayer, and which non-profits regularly make.

2
Long-Term Care Staffing Study, July 30, 2020 ontario.ca/longtermcare
Overall Quality Performance of Long-Term Care Homes in Ontario, 2019, HealthCare Quarterly, Vol. 22. No. 2
Through this pandemic, our amazing staff in our retirement and long-term care residences and our
corporate support teams have worked tirelessly around the clock to protect our residents, their families
and each other. They are heroic. Full stop. We have, and will continue to, put the safety of our
residents and staff first as we face the significant impact of this pandemic on our sector.

Sharon Ranalli
VP Marketing and Communications
Chartwell Retirement Residences