Ontario Breaks Ground on New Long-Term Care Home in Kingston

New building will bring 320 modern long-term care beds to the province

January 17, 2024

KINGSTON — Construction is underway on a new, 320-bed building for Providence Manor, a long-term care home in Kingston. This home is one of 67 long-term care home projects fast-tracked last fall with support from the Ontario government’s increased construction funding subsidy. This is part of the government’s commitment to build more than 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care beds across the province.

“I would like to congratulate Providence Manor on their ground-breaking for a new home. Our government is fixing long-term care and ensuring we build homes for seniors in the communities they helped build,” said Stan Cho, Minister of Long-Term Care. “Today marks a significant milestone for the City of Kingston. When construction is complete, 320 residents will have a new, modern and comfortable place to call home.”

The new 320-bed home is being built on land donated by The Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul. The modernized Providence Manor will replace the original home and provide 77 new and 243 upgraded beds and is expected to welcome its first residents in late fall 2026. The six-storey building will feature design improvements, including a physiotherapy room, multi-faith worship space, hair salon, a multi-purpose space, improved resident common areas and air conditioning throughout the home. The design is centred around ‘resident home areas’, each of which creates a more intimate and familiar living space for 32 residents with dining and activity areas, lounges and bedrooms.

Once complete, the home will also be part of the Providence Village campus of care that includes a hospice, retirement homes and a YMCA community building. A campus of care helps integrate the long-term care home into the broader health care system and ensures residents can conveniently connect to the care they need. The home is affiliated with Providence Care Hospital in Kingston.

As a result of the government’s supplemental increase to the construction funding subsidy, which was designed to stimulate the start of construction for more long-term care homes across Ontario, 67 projects received ministry approval to construct between April 1, 2022 and August 31, 2023. This means 11,199 new and upgraded beds are now being built to modern design standards across the province.

The government is fixing long-term care to ensure Ontario’s seniors get the quality of care and quality of life they need and deserve, both now and in the future. The plan is built on four pillars: staffing and care; quality and enforcement; building modern, safe and comfortable homes; and connecting seniors with faster, more convenient access to the services they need.

Quick Facts

Providence Manor is a not-for-profit home that is licensed to and operated by Providence Care Centre, and affiliated with Providence Care Hospital in Kingston.
As part of its plan to fix long-term care and address sector waitlists, the government is building more than 30,000 net new long-term care beds in Ontario by 2028 and upgrading more than 28,000 older beds to modern design standards.
Building more modern, safe and comfortable homes for our seniors is part of the Government of Ontario’s Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021.
The province is taking innovative steps to get long-term care homes built, including modernizing its funding model, selling unused lands with the requirement that long-term care homes be built on portions of the properties, and leveraging hospital-owned land to build urgently needed homes in large urban areas.
As of September 2023, more than 43,000 people were on the 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.

Quotes

“Today’s ground-breaking of the new Providence Manor long-term-care home represents Providence Care’s unwavering commitment to providing compassionate, resident-centred care for our aging population. The state-of-the-art, 320-bed residence will result in an additional 77 beds, allowing us to extend our reach and serve more members of our community. The expansion not only addresses the growing demand for long-term care but also allows us to create an updated environment that fosters a sense of belonging, purpose, and joy for our residents and their family. I am incredibly proud of our staff, volunteers and donors who have made getting to the ground-breaking stage possible.”

– Cathy Szabo
President & CEO, Providence Care

“The newly revitalized Providence Manor is designed to reflect the needs and concerns of our aging seniors in an environment that promotes dignity, independence and convenient access to care. The Providence Village campus embraces our government’s vision of a compassionate, comfortable, dignified lifestyle and that’s the very least we can offer those who have worked long and hard to make Ontario a place we can proudly call home.”

– John Jordan
MPP for Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston

Additional Resources

2023 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review: Building a Strong Ontario Together

Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care