Upper Canada Lodge in Niagara-on-the-Lake will close when a new 160-bed long-term care home in Fort Erie is completed — some time in 2024, says Henri Koning, Niagara Region’s director of senior services.
The region is in the process of two long-term care redevelopment projects, Linhaven in St. Catharines and Gilmore Lodge in Fort Erie, which is being built at the site of the former County Fair Mall.
Linhaven’s new facility, a $105-million project, will become home for 256 residents.
The cost to build the new Gilmore Lodge home in Fort Erie is $85 million.
Completion of both new facilities is approaching, but Koning didn’t offer an exact date in a statement provided to The Local, a sister publication of ThoroldToday, on Tuesday, although she indicated it would be sometime next year.
“As both projects move into the final phase of construction, 2024 anticipated building completion dates and resident move-in days will be determined in collaboration with the construction teams in the next month or two,” said Koning.
Upper Canada Lodge, an 80-bed facility, was initially slated to close in 2022, but provincial funding coming through for the other builds was a cause for that delay, according to
Niagara-on-the-Lake Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa.
“Those funding commitments weren’t received until later, and that kind of dragged everything back,” he told The Local.
Koning said 21 per cent of the residents at Upper Canada Lodge are from Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Last week, an official groundbreaking was held at the site of a new long-term care site in Niagara-on-the-Lake at Radiant Care’s Pleasant Manor, a facility that will be the home of 160 seniors.
Not a regional home but one operated by a non-profit organization, Zalepa said its construction is still part of the big picture when it comes to a need for housing for seniors in town — especially with the pending closure of Upper Canada Lodge.
“That’s exactly how the region looked at it when planning it out a few years ago,” he said.
He said the new Pleasant Manor project, planned to be ready in 2025, creates a “balance” with the region’s plans.
Koning said families and residents at Upper Canada Lodge have been working together with Home and Community Care to “select the long-term care home that they would like to move to.”
Upper Canada Lodge is still accepting residents into the home, said Koning.
Parks Canada owns the property Upper Canada Lodge sits on, but leases it to Niagara Region.
Zalepa said it is hoped by all involved parties that the building will still have a purpose when it is no longer a long-term care home.
Requests for proposals have been received for future uses.
“My understanding is that process just closed last week — so there will be something eventually, once staff evaluates the RFPs,” said Zalepa.
In 2019, Koning said a redevelopment of Upper Canada Lodge to bring it up to provincial standards was not feasible.
Zalepa said this week that there is a need for long-term care accommodation in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and on behalf of the town, said he encourages investors to explore more projects that could allow local seniors to age in place.
“I think the market will receive it well,” he said.
The region’s redevelopment plans were announced in 2017 during a media event at the site of the new Gilmore Lodge in Fort Erie.
As of September 2023, more than 43,000 people were on a waitlist to access a long-term care bed in Ontario. The median wait time is 118 days for applicants to be placed in long-term care, the Ontario government said in a recent news release.
