Proposed amending regulation to support the consolidation of the Local Health Integration Networks into Ontario Health atHome

Under subsection 16(7) of the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010 (ECFAA), the Minister of Health may decide that the public consultation requirements under subsections 16(2) to (6) should not apply to the power of the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make a regulation under section 16(1) of ECFAA. The Minister is required to provide public notice of this decision and a statement of the reasons for the decision.

When proclaimed, the Convenient Care at Home Act, 2023 would establish a Service Organization named Ontario Health atHome by amalgamating the province’s 14 local health integration networks (LHINs) operating as Home and Community Care Support Services (HCCSS) organizations, and the LHINs would no longer exist. In the immediate term after being established, Ontario Health atHome would provide the same services to patients and the public that the LHINs currently provides. As Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) mature, OHaH would provide operational supports to health service providers and designated OHTs funded by Ontario Health to provide home and community care services under the Connecting Care Act, 2019.

To support proclamation of the Convenient Care at Home Act, 2023, the Government of Ontario is proposing to amend s. 2(2) paragraph 3 of O.Reg. 236/16 (Definitions) of ECFAA by striking out “local health integration network” and substituting “the Service Organization”.  This provision in the regulation relates directly to a portion of the definition of “health sector organization” in the Act that would be amended by the Convenient Care at Home Act, 2023 to replace “local health integration network” with “Service Organization” when those provisions come into force.

Upon coming into effect, this regulation amendment would align with the other amendments made to ECFAA by the Convenient Care at Home Act, 2023 that, when in force, would make Ontario Health atHome, like the LHINs are now, a health sector organization under ECFAA subject to the jurisdiction of the patient ombudsman under ECFAA with respect to the same types of services the regulation currently prescribes for the LHINs.

The proposed regulation would come into effect at the same time as proclamation of the relevant provisions of the CCHA that would amend ECFAA to replace LHIN with the Service Organization in the definition of “health sector organization.”

I have determined that the foregoing proposed amendments are of a minor and technical nature.

The Honourable Sylvia Jones

Minister of Health