Long-term care homes in Ontario could get much-needed renovations thanks to a new provincial program. It’s meant to upgrade older homes and help repurpose existing buildings across Ontario. “We will be providing 50 per cent of capital funding that would have been eligible for a full renovation,” Natalia Kusendova-Bashta, Minister of Long-Term Care and Francophone Affairs told a crowd at the opening of an expanded long-term care home in Cambridge on Tuesday. There are about 620 long term care homes in Ontario and the province is building about 165 new ones with a goal of having 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care spaces. While there was already funding available for long-term care homes to build new facilities and redevelop existing ones, the new program offers help for landlocked homes that only have the option to renovate. “It’s part of a strategy to ensure that we maintain capacity within long-term care,” Kusendova-Bashta told CTV News. “So, what we want to do is, where possible, we want to salvage the existing structures and do a renovation to bring our homes up to a standard. Right now, we have class C, class D, class B, and class A homes. So those that are from the other three classes, we want to bring them up to class A and extend their lifespan by another 15 years.” The province has identified about 34 projects representing roughly 4,000 beds that are eligible for the program. “We’ll see how the industry, how the market responds to this new renovation strategy. They didn’t know before we announced it today that it’s there. So, we also have to see who’s interested in the strategy,” Kusendova-Bashta said. The program will fund up to 50 per cent of eligible full redevelopment projects, and the ministry will fund 85 per cent of eligible renovation costs based on a 15-year licence term. “We need everything because we have capacity pressures, as you know. And so, we’re trying to be innovative. No other provinces are doing what we’re doing in terms of long-term care capacity, investing $6.4 billion into long term care infrastructure,” Kusendova-Bashta said. The minister said the portal to apply for the program is now available in both English and French. “The sooner you can get in your application, the sooner our ministry team can start reviewing it,” Kusendova-Bashta said.
