Ground has been broken and construction will soon be underway at Glen Hill Gardens, a new long-term care home in Bowmanville – part of Ontario’s $6.4 billion commitment to build more than 30,000 net new beds by 2028 and 28,000 upgraded long-term care beds across the province.
Paul Calandra, Minister of Long-Term Care, said: “Two new long-term care homes have opened in Durham Region since spring 2021 and with the addition of Glen Hill Gardens, 224 residents will have a new place to call home in Bowmanville, near their family and friends.”
Glen Hill Terrace Christian Homes Inc., a not-for-profit long-term care organization, is proposing to operate Glen Hill Gardens pending final government approvals. The home is expected to welcome its first residents in early 2025 and will provide 125 new and 99 upgraded beds, for a total of 224 safe, modern long-term care beds in Bowmanville. This brand new building will have specific design improvements, including private rooms, no ward rooms, larger resident common areas and air conditioning throughout the home, said a provincial statement.
This project will also be eligible to apply for the government’s time-limited construction funding subsidy increase, designed to help fast-track the start of construction of new and upgraded long-term care beds across the province by the end of summer 2023. The additional construction subsidy increase of up to $35 per bed, per day for 25 years will help more beds get built sooner.
In addition to projects like Glen Hill Gardens in Bowmanville, Ontario is supporting another 11 projects in Durham Region, including the development of long-term care homes in Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering, Newcastle, Bowmanville, Courtice, Port Perry, Cannington and Uxbridge. Together, these 12 projects will provide 1,504 new and 968 upgraded long-term care beds, for a total of 2,472 beds built to modern design standards.
“Our government is on track to build 30,000 new long-term care beds in the province by 2028, with 31,705 new and 28,648 upgraded beds in various stages of development. The recent increase to the construction funding subsidy will help ensure that more beds are built in Bowmanville sooner, especially in the Clarington area which is one of the fastest growing communities in the GTA,” said Todd McCarthy, MPP for Durham.
Quick Facts
- The Ontario government is on track to build 30,000 much-needed net new long-term care beds in the province by 2028, and redeveloping older beds to modern design standards. Through a $6.4 billion investment, Ontario has 31,705 new and 28,648 upgraded beds in the planning, construction and opening stages of the development process. This will help protect overall bed capacity, address long-term care waitlists and hallway health care, and provide our seniors the care they deserve.
- Building more modern, safe and comfortable homes for our seniors is part of the Government of Ontario’s Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021.
- 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.
- The Ontario government is providing a supplemental increase to the construction funding subsidy to stimulate the start of construction by August 31, 2023 for more long-term care homes across the province. More information about funding for long-term care home development is available here.
- As of August 2022, more than 39,000 people were on the waitlist to access a long-term care bed in Ontario. The median wait time is 125 days for applicants to be placed in long-term care.