New nursing home to be constructed for Grand Manan

A new $9-million nursing home will be built to replace the present 36-year-old facility on Grand Manan. The announcement was made on June 7 by Fisheries Minister Rick Doucet, who also said that Campobello Lodge in Welshpool will receive $1 million in renovations; Fundy Nursing Home in Blacks Harbour will receive $595,000 in renovations; $1.2 million in renovations will be made to Lincourt Manor in St. Stephen; and Passamaquoddy Lodge in St. Andrews is receiving $3.6 million for an expansion and renovation.

The construction of the new 30-bed nursing home on Grand Manan will begin in the spring of 2011 with completion scheduled for the summer of 2012. It is estimated the project will create 80 construction jobs.

Joanne Ingalls has only been administrator at the Grand Manan Nursing Home for the last two-and-a-half years but says, "There have been issues for years" in regard to the need for a new facility on Grand Manan, and there has been a need for larger bedrooms and activity areas.

"It's certainly great to have more space for staff and residents," she says of the future facility, which is still in the planning stages.

Although the site for the new Grand Manan Nursing Home has not been chosen, Ingalls says properties in Castalia and on Ragged Point Road close to Woodward's Cove are being studied.

"The new facility will take the place of an aging building, which has served the residents of Grand Manan very well," says Rob MacPherson, board chairman of the Grand Manan Nursing Home Inc. "The staff provides excellent care to the residents under less than ideal working conditions. The new building will address current shortcomings in accommodations and provide a better work environment. The sooner we get our new home done, the better."

Fisheries Minister Doucet said of the Charlotte County nursing home projects, "[They] are included in our capital and renewal and replacement plan to transform long-term care services in the province. As part of our strategy, Be Independent Longer, we are making major investments in nursing home infrastructure to improve long-term-care facilities for seniors and to better meet the current and future needs of our aging population."

Under the provincial government's capital renewal and replacement plan, 11 nursing homes are being replaced with new facilities, and two other nursing homes are being built in Neguac and Dieppe. Five nursing homes will undergo major additions, 31 will be renovated; and six will undergo minor repairs. The total investment will reach over $400 million over the next five years.

Projects will be funded through bank loans to individual homes as authorized by Social Development. Cost recovery for new and upgraded facilities will be calculated into the provincial funding provided for nursing home services each year. The province does not own nursing homes, but it funds 85% of nursing home operations in New Brunswick, totalling more than $220 million annually.