'This whole thing stinks': PCs slam Liberal plan to deliver home care

The ProgressiveConservatives are criticizing the Liberal's plan to quietly introduce a new government agency to deliver home care directly.

This comes after an exclusive CBC story shedlight on the agency, which could eventually serve hundreds of thousands of patients in Ontario and make personal support home care workers government employees.

• How Ontario's home care plan would help a union that backs the Liberals

The PCs allegethe Wynne Liberals are too close to SEIU Healthcare, the union that could potentially benefit from the influx of workers the plan would create.

Industry insiders have told CBCNewsit's likely that most of the newly createdpublic employees wouldjoin SEIUHealthcare.

"This whole thing stinks and it just doesn'tpass the smell test," PC health critic Jeff Yurek said at a newsconference Thursday.

"The news release where this announcement was buried came within days of a Working Ontario Women attack campaign," the MPP said, referring to a series of adsagainst PC leader Patrick Brown.

SEIU is the key financial backer of Working Ontario Women.

PC MPP Lisa Thompson also pointed out that aformer president of the Liberal Party, Michael Spitale, is now director of government relations for SEIU, information that is publicly available.

When asked if the PCs' criticism of the home care plan is a response to the attack ads, the party'sdeputy leader Steve Clarke responded, "I am clearly upset about the relation between an organization with clear Liberal ties and the creation of a secret agency that no one seems to be able to answer questions about."

The agency was first mentioned in passing as part of a bigger announcement in early October by Health Minister Eric Hoskins and was included at the bottom of anews release that was primarily about an increase in publicly-funded home care services.

CBC News obtained a copy of the plan, dated October 2017, which says the agency, called Personal Support Services Ontario, will be created this fall and will start to deliver home care in the spring.

The Liberalshavesaid that the new home-care agency will give clients more choice in selecting a personal support worker, more control over their schedule, and more choice in services.

Our priority is patients,Liberals say

In a statement responding to the PCnewsconference, a spokesperson for the minister of health said the move is about putting Ontarians who receivecareat home in the driver's seat.

The full statement issued toCBCNews says the model, successfully implemented in othercountries,is proven to improveclient satisfaction, relationships between client and care provider, and meeting more of the client's needs.

The statementdoesnot address the allegations made by the PCsThursday.