The provincial government announced details of the development of a new long-term care home in Chatham-Kent today, providing 160 new beds to the region.
"The province under Doug Ford found ourselves trying to catch up," said Paul Calandra, Minister of Long-Term Care. " We knew that we had to do better, and that is why we made the commitment to build 30,000 long-term care beds and 28,000 upgraded beds by taking down some of the older outdated homes and replacing them with new modern state-of-the-art homes."
Calandra added that the province will be investing $10 billion in building new state-of-the-art homes across the province.
The new home in Chatham will be built at the corner of Keil Trail North and McNaughton Avenue West next to St. Angela's Meadow Retirement Lodge.
The building will feature 61 new and 99 upgraded beds, larger resident common areas and air conditioning throughout the facility.
The design is centred on more intimate living space with dining and activity areas, lounges and bedrooms which can host up to 32 residents.
The provincial government originally announced the development 10 years ago, and the announcement to begin the project was in November 2020.
It has taken nearly three years to get to a shovel in the ground.
The approval of the drawings and additional funding escalated the proceeding, as did the pandemic.
"It took me a little bit of time to come up with the understanding of how much that was going to delay for structure approximately, and that's why last November, with the advice, we finally doubled funding for larger builds to get us back on track to get maximum shelters before August 31st of this year," said Paul Calandra, Minister of Long-Term Care.
St. Angela's Meadow Care Centre is part of the Ontario government's $6.4 billion commitment to build more than 30,000 new beds by 2028 and 28,000 upgraded long-term care beds across the province.
