Province announces plan to build $95-M personal care home in Bridgwater

A $95-million care home with about 145 beds will be built in Bridgwater in southwest Winnipeg, the Manitoba government announced Thursday ahead of next week’s budget.

Uzoma Asagwara, the minister of health, seniors and long-term care, said the facility will probably open in a couple of years in the rapidly growing part of Manitoba’s capital.

“We want to move this as quickly as we can. We recognize there’s an urgency around building personal-care homes,” Asagwara said at a news conference at The Melody, a retirement residence at 920 Chancellor Dr. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure we put the health-care services and the housing and the supports in place so everyone can age with dignity in their own community.”

The care home is included in the government’s 2026-27 budget, which will be unveiled Tuesday. The facility will be run by the non-profit Winnipeg Mennonite Seniors Care Inc. The location and construction start date are still to be determined.

Thursday was at least the fourth time since 2015 that an NDP or Progressive Conservative government has announced plans for a care home in Bridgwater. The parties accused each other of delaying the project.

The New Democrats, under premier Greg Selinger, revealed plans for a 120-bed facility in 2015. Brian Pallister’s Tory government announced a 108-bed care home in 2017, a year after forming government.

Heather Stefanson was premier when the Tories announced plans for six new care homes, including a 143-bed facility in Bridgwater, in 2023, a few months before the NDP won a majority government.

“The community has been asking for this for many years. This was something that was not actioned under the previous government,” Asagwara said.

“This personal-care home project was announced by the previous PC government, and then when the current NDP government came into power they cancelled it, and now they’ve re-announced it,” PC health critic Kathleen Cook said.

Cook this week tabled legislation to expand the education property tax exemption for care homes, which are facing rising costs. She said the NDP blocked the bill Thursday.

The province will seek input from Bridgwater residents, health-care workers and other Manitobans, starting in June, to help determine the new care home’s services, amenities and design.

Elaine Cowan, a resident of The Melody who was invited to speak at the news conference by the government, told reporters the care home will bring peace of mind to seniors and families in southwest Winnipeg. She described the announcement as “damn exciting.”

“So many of us want to stay close to home as we age — close to our kids, our grandkids, our friends and the routines we built over a lifetime. Having more care spaces right here in the community just makes that possible,” Cowan said.

“We all want the same thing — to age with dignity, to feel safe and to still feel like we belong. This announcement is a step in that direction.”

Construction of a 95-bed care home in Lac du Bonnet is expected to finish around summer 2027. The project was announced by the former NDP government in 2012, cancelled by the Pallister government in 2017 and re-announced under Stefanson before Premier Wab Kinew’s New Democrats took over in 2023.

The province said construction of a 59-bed expansion in Arborg, also announced by the Tories in 2023, will begin in June.

An 83-bed expansion at Transcona’s only care home, Park Manor, will begin next winter. The Kinew government announced the project in February 2025, nearly a decade after Pallister promised to build it.

Asagwara said Manitoba had a net loss of more than 200 care home beds under the former PC government, despite a pledge to add 1,200 over eight years.

In February, the province took over the 78-bed, for-profit Golden Door Geriatric Centre on Pembina Highway, which was set to close by April, to avoid losing beds in the system.

Kinew said the Lac du Bonnet care home will be a village-like setting, or a self-contained community, with services and a design that allow residents to maintain or make new relationships.

“The science actually shows that having this village model in a long-term care facility improves the outcomes. (It) helps to keep your mind sharp, helps to ensure the overall sense of vitality and vibrance is really, really strong, so this seems like the way to go,” he said.

“But, importantly, we want to ask southwest Winnipeg, what does a village model look like for you, and how could we tailor this build to meet the needs of the community?”

Kinew and Asagwara said the Bridgwater care home is part of the government’s overall plan for health care, which includes Victoria Hospital’s new emergency room, where construction began this month.

— With files from Carol Sanders

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca