Will Bouma, Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Brantford-Brant, visited Brierwood Gardens in Brantford to announce 177 new and 79 upgraded beds at the long-term care home on Friday, April 8.
“When construction is completed, 256 residents will have a new place to call home, close to family and close to friends,” MPP Bouma said during the announcement. “Today’s announcement in Brantford is a series of announcements across Ontario that places our government as the largest long-term care building program in Canada, ever.”
MPP Bouma said that the Ontario government is investing $6.4 billion into improving the long-term care system in the province.
“Building more beds is what Ontario needs and has needed for decades,” he said. “Building a strong and resilient long-term care sector also means improving staffing and care and protecting residents through better enforcement, accountability and transparency.”
The project is part of the Ontario government’s plan to build 30,000 net new, and 28,000 upgraded long-term care beds across Ontario by 2028.
Including the newly announced project, there are now 443 new and 397 upgraded long-term care beds in development, under construction or completed in the City of Brantford, County of Brant and Six Nations of the Grand River.
Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis was present at the announcement at the facility on Park Road North and shared his excitement for the project.
“Four or five years ago, we were faced with losing long-term care beds in our home and it is really great news to hear that the number of long-term care homes is increasing very substantially,” Mayor Davis said. “These new beds will be built in a way that will reflect the lessons we have learned through the pandemic. The impact of this will continue to be felt for many years.”
Brierwood Gardens is the seventh long-term care home in the region to be receiving upgrades and net new beds, marking the largest number of improvements. The six other homes involved in the project include John Noble Home and Fox Ridge Care Community Home in Brantford, Hardy Terrace in Mount Pleasant, Telfer Place and Park Lane Terrace Home in Paris, and Iroquois Lodge Home in Ohsweken.
Wendy Gilmour, senior Vice President of long-term care at Revera, the organization that owns Brierwood Gardens and a number of other retirement and long-term care homes across the country, said that this announcement has been a long time coming.
“We started talking about this in 2014 and it has taken that long for it to come together,” she said “We are really looking forward to the completion of this project. The investment is into a modern design that meets the latest ministry design standards that enhances safety and comfort of our residents and improves the working environment for our staff.”
