Ontario announces new 256-bed long-term care home in Vaughan, Ont.

TORONTO -

The Ontario government announced Tuesday that a new 256-bed long-term care home will be built in the Greater Toronto Area.

The announcement was made by Minister of Long-Term Care Rod Phillips, MPP for King-Vaughan Stephen Lecce, and MPP for Vaughan-Woodridge Michael Tibollo.

The new home, which will be built on a portion of Martin Grove Road in Vaughan, Ont., is expected to be open by 2026, officials said. Phillips added that the home will “offer culturally appropriate services to members of the Italian community.”

The facility is being built on a portion of unused government land that will be sold under the condition that a portion of the site be used for long-term care.

As of Tuesday, the province said it has entered a conditional agreement with Arch Vaughan Facility Inc. for the sale of the property. The agreement is expected to be finalized in early 2022, officials said.

“Our government’s initiative to sell unused government lands on the condition that a long-term care home is built on the site, means that more safe, comfortable and modern beds are getting built in areas where they are most needed,” Phillips said in a statement.

The Progressive Conservative government has promised to add 30,000 new long-term care beds over the next 10 years, however in May the Financial Accountability Office said that those beds won’t be enough to meet demand.

The office also found that the province will not meet its goal of creating 15,000 new beds by 2024.

The province, meanwhile, said in a new release Tuesday that about 60 per cent of the 30,000 promised beds are “in the planning, construction and completed stages of the development process.”

There were more than 38,000 people on a waitlist to access long-term care in Ontario as of May 2021, officials say.