Region seniors homes poised for makeovers
Regional committee recommends estimated $94-million plan to meet mandate
Niagara Region’s corporate services committee took another step on the road to improving the care of seniors.
The committee voted to give staff the go-ahead to apply to the Ministry of Health and LongTerm Care for funding for campus-style redevelopment of two long-term care homes in Niagara: Linhaven in St. Catharines and Gilmore Lodge in Fort Erie.
Linhaven would have 160 to 280 beds. The redeveloped Fort Erie site would have between 128 and 160 beds.
The early high-level estimated investment for these two sites is $94 million.
Staff is wording the application
to the ministry in such a way as to allow flexibility to adjust to changes in the market, said Jason Burgess, the Region’s acting commissioner of enterprise and resource management.
However, that flexibility concerns some councillors.
“I look forward to more details,” Pelham Mayor Dave Au-
gustyn said. “This is sort of the next logical step, but we don’t know what the sites are going to look like. There is still a lot of work to be done.”
Full council still must approve the committee’s recommendations. It will have a chance to weigh in on April 12.
Augustyn said he won’t support the recommendations at the full meeting of council unless he sees more detailed budget figures in light of what happened with the Burgoyne Bridge project. Budget overruns on that project more than doubled the cost to more than $90 million.
St. Catharines Coun. Bruce Timms tried to amend the committee motion to ensure 240 beds is the lower limit at Linhaven. He didn’t want to leave the door open to a smaller site, but his amendment was defeated.
Niagara Falls Coun. Bart Maves said budget figures likely wouldn’t be available until the Region learns how much private investment it can attract.
Burgess said the high-level budget estimate was provided to reassure councillors figures are below the capital budget guidance already set.
Maves reminded his colleagues that the province initiated the process by telling the Region that three of its long-term care homes had to be redeveloped by 2025.
Council formed a committee with experts from the community — including Doug Rapelje, who has decades of experience as a longterm care administrator in Niagara — to get ahead of the process.
Maves cited a recent Ministry of Health and Long-term Care decision to put 120 new long-term care beds into a private-sector facility in Niagara-on-the-Lake as proof the system will work for seniors.
“That facility will now have more amenities and be a more dynamic place for these seniors
to live,” he said.
“That’s the goal the committee ended up with … I just want to assure everybody that this is where we are headed.”
The committee approved a procurement process and reaffirmed support for developing a “strategic” plan for all the longterm care homes and senior services in Niagara Region.