KENORA — Wiigwas Elder and Senior Care’s board has selected a site for a proposed new 160-bed long-term care facility.
A new care home will be constructed on Kenora property owned by Kenora Chiefs Advisory, Wiigwas announced on April 4.
The new facility is to replace the current Wiigwas home at 237 Lakeview Dr., which Wiigwas described in a news release as “in a very dire state” requiring expensive upgrades.
The Wiigwas board decided last week that the replacement home should be built on the former Kenora Forest Products site, near where All Nations Hospital Project partners hope to construct a new hospital for Kenora.
The 160 beds in the replacement home’s design are a more than 60-bed increase from the current facility’s capacity.
Kenora Forest Products operated a sawmill near Keewatin Bay for many years until closing it in 2019. Another company bought the 42-acre property in 2020, and Kenora Chiefs Advisory purchased eight of those acres.
The timeline for the new Wiigwas centre’s construction has not been determined, Chiefs Advisory executive director Jennifer Dreaver said Tuesday in an interview.
First, “there may be some adjustments to the building design … in consideration of the new site,” she said.
The eventual new facility will emphasize Anishinaabe culture and include space for a sweat lodge, a teaching lodge and other features for its Indigenous residents.
“On behalf of the board of directors for Wiigwas Elder and Senior Care, we feel very good about the decision made through resolution by our board to locate the new build on this site within the city of Kenora,” said Wiigwas board president Lorraine Cobiness, who is also chief of Niisaachewan Anishinaabe Nation and president of the Kenora Chiefs Advisory board.
“After a lot of discussion and evaluation, we are excited about the future partnerships and connections to services this site will bring to us,” she added.
“We need to ensure our residents and elders have the absolute best care, and a large part of that is ensuring wrap-around services are available, so we look forward to this new site and all the amazing opportunities it will bring.”
Dreaver said the new care home had been planned for a site in nearby Wauzhushk Onigam (Rat Portage) Nation.
“But due to circumstances that were personal to the community of Wauzhushk Onigum, there was a decision to relocate the new build site,” she said.
Having two large projects in health care next to each other made sense, she said.
“Why would we do them completely separate? There are efficiencies in bringing those projects to co-location, like from an infrastructure perspective.
“We could save dollars putting in water, sewer, and roads to both. We would need one laundry facility and one central area for cooking and cleaning. There are a lot of streamlined efficiencies when you bring together some of the components that support the operations of those facilities.”
With the site decision now made, the Wiigwas team will be working closely with community leaders, Ontario Health, the design team and others to move the project forward, Dreaver said.
