Ontario Building New and Improved Long-Term Care in the Ottawa area

Extendicare Stittsville will bring much-needed beds to the region

STITTSVILLE — The Ontario government is redeveloping and upgrading Extendicare Stittsville, a long-term care home in the Ottawa area, as part of the province’s transformative vision to fix the long-term care sector and protect Ontario’s progress against COVID-19 by building the beds we need to provide safe, quality care to residents. This project is a direct result of the Ontario government’s historic $2.68 billion investment in long-term care development to deliver 30,000 new beds over ten years and redevelop existing, older homes, to increase access to long-term care, reduce waitlists, and ease hospital capacity pressures.

“After decades of neglect and underfunding, our government is fixing Ontario’s long-term care sector and building modern, safe, comfortable homes for our seniors,” said Rod Phillips, Minister of Long-Term Care. “When the new Extendicare Stittsville is completed, it will have 256 beds for seniors in the community to call home, near their family and friends.”

Today’s ground-breaking marks the start of construction of a brand new building for Extendicare Stittsville. This home will provide 256 upgraded, modern long-term care beds in the Ottawa area and is expected to welcome residents in Fall 2023.

Extendicare Stittsville will have specific design improvements, including semi-private and private rooms, no ward rooms, larger resident common areas, air conditioning throughout and additional design features for infection prevention and control.

“Today’s ground-breaking is exciting news which marks the starting point for building modern, quality living spaces for the senior population in Stittsville and Carleton,” said Goldie Ghamari, MPP for Carleton. “Our government has been taking the necessary steps to improve the lives of our loved ones by building and upgrading long-term care homes that are safe and comfortable.”

The government has a plan to fix long-term care and to ensure Ontario’s seniors get the quality of care they need and deserve both now and in the future. The plan is built on three pillars: staffing and care; accountability, enforcement, and transparency; and building modern, safe, comfortable homes for seniors.

As part of this plan, the province is also providing up to $270 million this year to long-term care homes to increase staffing levels by 4,050 new long-term care staff across the province, leading to more direct care for residents. This is part of the province’s $4.9 billion commitment to hire more than 27,000 long-term care staff over four years and ensure that residents receive on average four hours of direct care per day by 2024-25.

The government will release its plan to protect Ontario’s progress against COVID-19 and for building the foundation for the province’s recovery and prosperity in the 2021 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review on Thursday, November 4.

Quick Facts

  • The Ontario government has introduced legislation that would improve the well-being of residents in long-term care and retirement homes, and ensure they get the care they deserve. If passed, the Providing More Care, Protecting Seniors, and Building More Beds Act, 2021 would repeal the current Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007 and create the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021. The Bill also includes proposed amendments to the Retirement Homes Act, 2010.
  • The province has issued a new call for applications to develop long-term care homes, in order to deliver on its goal of building 30,000 net new long-term care beds in a decade.
  • The Ontario government is making a historic $2.68 billion investment in long-term care development. That includes a $933 million investment in 80 new long-term care projects in March 2021. This will lead to thousands of new and upgraded long-term care beds across the province.
  • Ontario now has 20,161 new and 15,918 redevelopment beds in the development pipeline – which means more than 60 percent of the 30,000 net new beds being delivered are in the planning, construction and completed stages of the development process.
  • Building new long-term care homes and redeveloping existing older homes to modern standards is part of the Government of Ontario’s Long-Term Care Modernization Plan.
  • The province is taking innovative 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 June 2021, more than 38,000 people were on the waitlist to access a long-term care bed in Ontario. The median wait time is 163 days for applicants to be placed in long-term care.

Source Province of Ontario 

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