Construction underway on new Extendicare Stittsville long-term care home

Stittsville’s Extendicare, a long-term care home in the Ottawa area, is getting an upgrade that includes over 250 enhanced and modern long-term care beds.

The Ontario government made the announcement via news release on Friday, October 29, adding that the project is a direct result of the provincial government’s $2.68 billion investment into long-term care development that will deliver 30,000 new beds over 10 years and redevelop existing, older homes.

All this is also 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, in a statement. “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.”

The ground-breaking on Friday marks the start of construction of a brand new building for Extendicare Stittsville.

This home will provide 256 new and upgraded beds and is expected to welcome residents in the fall of 2023.

The home will also have specific design improvements, including semi-private and private rooms, no ward rooms, larger resident common areas, air conditioning throughout and additional features for infection prevent 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 Ontario government’s plan is to build on three pillars in the long-term care sector: staffing and care; accountability, enforcement and transparency; and building modern, safe, comfortable homes for seniors.

As part of the plan, the province is also providing $270 million this year to long-term care homes to increase staffing levels by 4,050 new long-term care staff across Ontario, leading to more direct care for residents.

This include the province’s $4.9 billion commitment to hire more than 27,000 long-term care staff over four years and ensure that residents get on average four hours of direct care per day by 2024-25.

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.