TORONTO - Ontario's rapidly aging population is spurring the governing Liberals to start regulating retirement homes, Seniors Minister Gerry Phillips said Tuesday.

The government will introduce legislation this spring that will ensure all retirement homes meet certain standards, possibly through a body that will oversee them, he said.

"The senior population is growing and this is an important part of seniors' accommodation," he said.

Phillips declined to divulge any specifics, as the legislation is still being drafted.

But the bill will include minimum safety and care standards and a resident's bill of rights, according to his staff.

"Making sure that people are informed, in clear language, of what the retirement home provides, making sure it's safe and secure and making sure that if their circumstances change that there's a way that's accommodated -- those are kind of the areas we're looking at," Phillips said.

There are about 750 retirement homes in Ontario housing about 43,000 residents, he said.

"We've been saying we're going to do this for some time, and we will do it," he said.

Retirement homes are private-pay accommodations for seniors that aren't regulated in Ontario like nursing homes, which receive government funding to provide medical care to elderly patients.

They do have to meet provincial fire and building codes, abide by tenant protection laws and meet public health and food safety provisions under Ontario's Health Protection and Promotion Act.

About 380 municipalities also have bylaws that retirement homes must follow, said Gord White, chief executive of the Ontario Retirement Communities Association.

"But there's nothing that's really ensuring and governing the competency of retirement homes to provide care and services for seniors in Ontario," he said.

About 70 per cent of Ontario's retirement home beds are accredited by ORCA, a non-profit association that sets professional standards and inspects retirement homes, he said.

Critics say the regulations are long overdue, but question whether the government really has the best interests of seniors at heart.

The government isn't building any new nursing homes, but is putting pressure on the province's cash-strapped hospitals to discharge patients more quickly, said Progressive Conservative critic Gerry Martiniuk.

Elderly patients who should be in long-term care may end up in retirement homes that don't provide the assistance they need, he said.

"I'm really disappointed because I think our seniors deserve better than that," he said.

"They deserve a decent place to live in their retirement when they need extra care and that's not being provided by this government."

The lack of nursing home beds was thrown into sharp relief recently when Ottawa's chief coroner reported that the lower level of care offered at a retirement home contributed to the death of a 92-year-old woman.

The woman had moved out of hospital and into a retirement home while waiting for a bed to open at a nursing home.