Premier promises Lac du Bonnet care-home project going ahead ‘for real, this time’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/03/2024 (537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Wab Kinew said Thursday that construction on a long-promised but never delivered personal-care home in Lac du Bonnet will begin “for real, this time,” a dozen years after it was first announced.

The 95-bed facility is expected to cost $66.4 million and be completed by 2027, the premier told a cheering audience at the Pioneer Club in the town of about 1,100 people located 115 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Kinew said there will be shovels in the ground later this year.

The on-again, off-again care-home project became a political pawn in the years after then-premier Greg Selinger announced construction of a $32-million 80-bed residence to replace the community’s existing 30-bed facility in 2012.

After defeating the NDP in the 2016 provincial election, premier Brian Pallister’s austerity-focused Progressive Conservative government cancelled the project in 2017. His successor, PC premier Heather Stefanson, put it back on the agenda prior to last fall’s election.

The NDP, which won a majority government on Oct. 3, placed the project and several others “under review” shortly after taking power to examine capital health spending.

The funding to build it is included in this year’s provincial budget, which will be released April 2.

The community has been discussing the need for a new facility that will serve people beyond the town’s borders for more than 20 years.

“This day is long overdue,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Thursday.

When finally built, the care home is expected to improve capacity in the health system overall, Kinew said, adding Manitoba has a responsibility to “do right by” seniors.

“It’s needed for the region, for sure, but this is needed provincially,” he said. “Our whole province is short of long-term care beds, and that’s having a big impact on seniors, a big impact on families, but it’s also having an impact on our hospitals.”

An estimated 65 residents in the area are waiting for a personal-care home bed.

Lac du Bonnet Mayor Ken Lodge, who said he’s been to two sod-turnings for the project, thanked the current government and previous ones for their support.

“It is so heartfelt, I can’t even really come up with the words for this,” Lodge said.

“There’s a lot of people who have left us in the intervening time where they could’ve reaped the benefit of having this facility here. We’ve done the best we could do up to this point, but it’s extremely important that we plan for the future.”

Pat Porth, a community resource co-ordinator with Two Rivers Seniors’ Resource Council in Lac du Bonnet, said she is one of the residents who began pushing for a new facility more than two decades ago.

“The big buzzword is ‘aging in place.’ Well, we have a lot of people who have now aged out of their place. And it’s pretty dire,” Porth said.

“Once home care… and our services for seniors program can no longer provide services to keep them in their homes as long as possible, they now will have a new home, a new residence and be allowed again to remain in their community amongst friends and family.”

There’s still a “great need” for personal-care home beds across the province, and this is a step in the right direction, said Gladys Hrabi, CEO of the Manitoba Association of Residential and Community Care Homes.

“This has been announced before and it’s about time this actually, really, has to happen,” she said. “Even in Winnipeg, we have a lot of people who are waiting to be panelled (to receive a personal-care home placement).”

Although the previous government revived the project in August, it was one of six personal-care homes approved in principle but not funded, according to Treasury Board documents, the province said in a news release Thursday.

At the time, the community was told funding for the project was already in place. Five other new long-term care homes were announced by the PCs last summer, including a 60-bed facility in Arborg, a 96-bed home in Oakbank, 144 beds in Stonewall and two separate facilities with a total of 283 beds in Winnipeg.

Kinew didn’t provide updates on those projects, which were also placed on hold. He hinted more details will come with his government’s first budget in a couple of weeks, but said Manitoba needs to “live within our means.”

“Our province cannot sustain all the things that were announced in the leadup to the election, and so, we’ve been doing the work to figure out how do we prioritize all these great projects, all these great ideas.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca