Whistle-blower protection and tougher penalties for violations will be unveiled today at Queen's Park as part of legislative changes aimed at ending abuses at long-term care facilities.A telephone hotline is available to report problems inside long-term care facilities now. But there is no protection for people who work or live in the facilities to ensure they won't be punished or threatened if they report abuses. The hotline has received 2,151 calls since January, 225 last month alone. Calls are investigated in order of seriousness.Although health ministry officials have been conducting surprise inspections at Ontario's 618 long-term care facilities since January 2004, the government is now laying out a pyramid of increasingly severe penalties homes will face if they fail to meet inspectors' rulings.Health Minister George Smitherman will announce the changes, called the Long-Term Care Homes Act 2006, today.It's hard to have eyes and ears everywhere, Smitherman told the Toronto Star yesterday. "The only thing sufficient ... is for all those people in a long-term care environment — residents, workers, volunteers, family and other visitors — to understand the nature of the system if they wish to make a complaint."