Ontario Construction News staff writer
Construction is underway at Neighbourhood Better Living in Belleville and Clare McFaul Long-Term Care in Madoc. The two new long-term care lhomes are among the 67 projects fast-tracked this fall with support from the Ontario government’s increased provincial construction funding subsidy for construction starts before August 31, 2023.
“Congratulations to the teams at Neighbourhood Better Living and Clare McFaul on their ground-breakings for their new homes. Our government is fixing long-term care and ensuring we build homes for seniors in the communities they helped build,” said Stan Cho, minister of long-term care. “Today marks a significant milestone for Belleville and Madoc. When construction is complete, 288 additional residents will have a new, modern and comfortable place to call home.”
Neighbourhood Better Living in Belleville will provide 160 new beds; part of a campus of care, that integrates care into the broader health care system and ensures residents can conveniently connect to the care they need. The home is expected to open in fall 2025.
Clare McFaul Long-Term Care in Madoc will have 128 new beds in a building designed with an emphasis on energy conservation and infection control. The home will also be part of a campus of care. Construction will be completed in fall 2025.
“We are incredibly excited to begin construction of Neighbourhood Better Living, a state-of-the-art long-term “From the outset, we wanted to build a place that could feel like home, where generations can receive exceptional care and stay in the Belleville area. I have a deep connection to Belleville, with several of my family members living in this city. Like so many, they never want to leave.
“Today’s ground-breaking is an important step in ensuring that local residents have access to care within the community that they love. I would like to thank the Province of Ontario for its continued support of the project. We look forward to becoming a valued member of this wonderful community.”
Both sites will feature design improvements including larger resident common areas and air conditioning throughout. The design is centred around ‘resident home areas’, each of which creates a more intimate and familiar living space for up to 32 residents, with dining and activity areas, lounges and bedrooms.
The province has announced several steps to get long-term care homes built, including modernizing its funding model, selling unused lands with the requirement that long-term care homes be built on portions of the properties, and leveraging hospital-owned land to build urgently needed homes in large urban areas.
As of September 2023, more than 43,000 people were on the waitlist to access a long-term care bed in Ontario.
“I am happy to see this much needed long-term care home in Madoc get underway,” said Ric Bresee, MPP for Hastings—Lennox and Addington. “It will fill a gap and provide a home for so many in central Hastings County. So happy to see this government fulling its promise to provide high quality long-term care across all regions in the province.”