Compliance and Enforcement in Ontario’s Long-Term...

Compliance and Enforcement in Ontario’s Long-Term Care Homes: What’s the Problem? An Application of the Critical Discourse Problematization Framework for Policy Analysis

Abstract

This paper critically examines Ontario’s Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021, focusing on Part X (Compliance and Enforcement) through Van Aswegen et al.’s (2019) Critical Discourse Problematization Framework (CDPF). Using a poststructural, Foucauldian lens, the analysis interrogates how policy discourse constructs the “problem” of abuse and neglect in long-term care (LTC) homes and positions actors within power relations. Findings reveal that the Act frames LTC operators and staff as primary perpetrators of harm while situating the government as protector, obscuring state accountability for systemic underfunding and structural neglect. The analysis shows how legalistic and punitive discourses reinforce compliance and surveillance rather than supporting relational, resident-centered care. The paper concludes that legislative reform focused on enforcement fails to address the underlying causes of LTC crises. Emerging questions concern how power and discourse shape health policy responses and what alternative framings could enable transformative, equitable LTC reform.