A health advocacy coalition and the daughter of a deceased long-term-care resident have launched a court challenge against the Ministry of Long-term Care’s approval of the expansion of a Pickering home where the Canadian military reported disturbing conditions during the pandemic.

The challenge announced Tuesday calls for a judicial review of the ministry’s decision to approve an 87-bed expansion of Orchard Villa long-term-care home and a new 30-year licence for its parent company, Southbridge Care Homes.

The home would also redevelop 131 of its 233 existing long-term care beds.

Orchard Villa was one of five homes that the military entered in April 2020, when it reported inadequate staff training and resident care within the facility. According to the recent court filing, 206 of Orchard Villa’s 233 residents had COVID by spring 2020. During the first wave, 71 residents died at the home.

Orchard Villa continues to face reports of non-compliances under the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, as recently as January.

“I’m at a loss for words as to how this home can be granted a licence to go ahead with a new build,” said Catherine Parkes, whose father died at Orchard Villa almost four years ago.

In April 2020, the military was called in to help Orchard Villa and four other care homes handle COVID outbreaks. The Canadian Armed Forces later released a scathing, 23-page report about conditions in some of the facilities.

The report said, among many problems noted, patients at Orchard Villa were left in soiled diapers, caregivers were burned out and the facility had cockroaches and flies.