The provincial government is beginning a thorough review of the Seniors Lodge Program.
Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon says they will be looking to make the most of existing seniors lodge spaces, even those in older buildings in rural communities.
“At the same time, we’re not going to just fully just wait for the panel recommendations specifically on that, we’re already taking action. My department this year is spending $110 million on capital maintenance and renewal. I announced $16 million this summer to be added to our existing budget with a focus on rejuvenating or renovating units that were offline or incapable of being used.”
Nixon says he’ll hope to have more to say on the capital maintenance issue when the provincial budget goes through the legislature in the spring.
Another area that will be looked at in the review is the transitions between lodges and continuing care homes.
“Lots of our lodge facilities are actually in the same facility as continuing care facilities, particularly in rural Alberta, so of course we have to have a conversation about what that connection looks like. We will continue to make sure that health is part of our conversation on the direction that we’re headed and of course on the direction that they’re headed.”
Nixon says the government led panel doing the review is made up of municipal representatives, social housing and seniors organizations.
The panel was announced during a press conference today. We asked the minister a couple of questions during that conference, you can watch the video of that below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
