How New Governance Shapes Changes in the Long-Term Care Sector in Ontario, Canada

This paper turns to the insights of New Governance in order to explain how law was used to promote innovations in health care governance in the Canadian province of Ontario between 2004 and 2012. New Governance refers to a family of approaches that are more flexible and less prescriptive. My research includes review of government documents, legislation and other sources in order to identify changes to regulation and governance. I also draw upon interviews with seven organizations in the sector, which were conducted as part of a larger project to help contextualize and explain the changes in law. I argue that, while the formal legal and regulatory apparatus continue to be used to regulate the provision of care and treatment, New Governance approaches represent additional processes and procedures to problem-solve challenges in the sector. Law is being used to formalize or strengthen these processes and procedures in order to allow long-term care home residents, families, friends, and workers to participate in problemsolving. This increasing emphasis on processes can be understood as an attempt to broaden the scope of possible solutions and changes that could be implemented in the sector. For future research, I suggest that more attention be paid to interrogating the relationships that enable New Governance techniques.