Ground breaks for new LTC residence

By Pam Wright Local Journalism Initiative pamwrightlji@gmail.com

Years in the making, the new 160-bed St. Angela’s Meadow Care Centre is about to take shape in west Chatham.

According to officials, construction will get underway at 20 Merici Way adjacent to St. Angela’s Meadow Retirement Lodge within one week’s time.

Ontario Minister of Long-Term Care Paul Calandra paid a special visit to the municipality July 24 to help break ground on the long-awaited announcement.

“Today marks a significant milestone for Cha- tham-Kent,” Calandra told the crowd. “When construction is completed, 160 residents will have a new place to call home, near their family and friends.”

Calandra praised the efforts of the Ford government for doubling down on its commitment to improve long-term care, explaining the Chatham-Kent community is getting 500 new beds, which he said is more than the Liberals accomplished in two previous governments.

“I want to put that in context,” he added, noting the Liberal government only built 611 long-term care beds in the province in eight years.

Calandra said his government has been “trying to catch up” from day one and will build 30,000 new beds in Ontario by 2028. By way of a $10-billion investment, he said Ontario has 31,705 new and 28,648 upgrade beds in the planning, construction and opening stages.

As well, he said, Ontario is investing $5 billion in staffing with a goal of hiring 27,000 additional LTC workers.

He said progress in LTC entails taking down old out-dated homes and replacing them with modern facilities, noting it’s “important to transform long-term care.

“It’s not just about building homes,” he said. “We listened. For far too long governments in Ontario treated long-term care like an institution, whereas you and your staff and your teams told us these are homes.”

Meadow Park Chatham administrator and emcee

Anne Marie Rumble was all smiles as she kicked off the event.

“This is actually so surreal,” Rumble said, “and hard to believe we are finally here and ready to officially break ground for a new home that we have been hoping, wishing and dreaming of for so long.

“This is something our community and residents and team members are so deserving of,” she said.

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