Peggy Kelley, a resident of Queens Manor, and Bertha Goodwin, a resident of Hillsview Acres, unveil the name of the new long-term care facility in Queens County. (Rick Conrad)

UPDATED FRIDAY AT 3:45 P.M.

The new long-term care facility in Liverpool now has a name.

The 112-bed nursing home will be called The Neighbourhoods of Dogwood Lane.

About 50 people turned out for the name unveiling on Friday morning at the Best Western Plus in Liverpool, including Queens MLA Kim Masland, Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian, regional councillors and some senior municipal staff. There were also residents there from the privately run Queens Manor and the municipally owned Hillsview Acres in Greenfield.

The new $108-million home combines those two facilities.

Andrew MacVicar, executive director of Queens Manor, told the crowd that they received 208 submissions from the community in the naming campaign that began in September.

“We wanted a name that reflected a new beginning and a fresh start,” he said.

“We knew the final name needed to come from the community because this home truly belongs to the community.”

He said the name reflects the new standard in long-term care design of a neighbourhood or household model.

“Smaller households of 12 to 16 residents help create a warm, less institutional environment, one that supports comfort, dignity and a true sense of home. In our new home, we will have four neighbourhoods, each made of two households, for a total of eight households. These neighbourhoods are connected by a central lane that every visitor will walk along to reach their loved one’s household.

“That central lane, beginning right at our front door, will be Dogwood Lane. So, they’re all connected in a way. And I think we can all agree that the dogwood tree has really become a symbol of Queens County.”

Those dogwood trees flourish every spring throughout Queens County. The man who helped bring them to the area in 2000 when he was mayor was Christopher Clarke, who is the chair of the Queens Home for Special Care (the Manor).

He said the new long-term care home represents the biggest construction project in Queens County in the past 50 years. 

“It’s a great step forward. It means a lot to me because I’ve been associated with dogwoods in Queens County for a long time and I never thought this snowball would have gathered in momentum and kept growing in size, so it’s great.”

The Neighbourhoods of Dogwood Lane will also add 22 new beds to long-term care in Queens.

All bedrooms in the new facility will be single occupancy with private bathrooms. And each room will have ceiling lifts that extend to the bathroom, to make it easier for staff to help mobility-impaired residents move around their room. The province funds those devices in only 24 rooms. 

So, the facility’s board is launching a $4-million fundraising campaign for the rest. Clarke said they’re already getting donations.

“It’s going very well. We’ve had some big donations and we’re reaching a point now where we’re looking for the community to make donations. As they say, no donation is too small. Everybody who makes a donation will be recognized on a board in the facility when it opens.”

Queens Manor’s oldest female resident Peggy Kelley helped to unveil the new name on Friday. The 95-year-old said she’s looking forward to being in the new home next year.

“I think it’s going to be nice to have bigger rooms. I’m actually in a private room. But with the wheelchair, (the room) is quite small and very hard to get around in, but the new ones are going to be bigger and we’re going to have our own bathroom. It’s nice, you don’t have to wait for somebody else.

“It’s going to be nice to be there and it’s such a beautiful looking building.”

Masland, who is also Nova Scotia’s minister of natural resources and minister of emergency management, said the province wants to keep people closer to their homes longer. And the new Dogwood Lane facility in Liverpool will help make that happen.

“From a perspective of single beds, single rooms, that’s always been something that’s been very important to me. You know, my grandmother was in Queens Manor, and when she was passing, there was someone beside her that was very ill, that it was very difficult for us as a family not to have that time with her. So I think those single rooms are so important for privacy for our seniors.”

MacVicar said the project is still on track to be finished in the fall of 2026. Depending on final inspections, residents may be in the new facility before Christmas 2026 or in early 2027, he said.

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Andrew MacVicar is the executive director of Queens Manor Home for Special Care in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

As the new long-term care home in Liverpool takes shape, Queens Manor executive director Andrew MacVicar says the years of planning are paying off.

“Walking into the building and seeing it in 3D and seeing it unfolding, it’s pretty rewarding,” he told QCCR in a recent interview.

“It’s just really exciting to see it coming alive and it’s also really rewarding to see design elements that we spent a long time thinking about and now seeing that we were right.”

The new 112-bed facility will replace Queens County’s two existing homes – the privately run Queens Manor and the municipally owned Hillsview Acres in Greenfield. Located across from Queens Place Emera Centre, it will add 22 long-term care beds in Queens County.

“Anybody that’s driven by can see that we’re moving really quickly. It’s an 11-step process and I believe we’re at Step 9. The external envelope is up. You can clearly see bedrooms taking shape, dining rooms taking shape.”

Construction began on the $100-million complex in November 2023, after two years of intensive planning and design consultations with residents, families, staff and the community.

“I have to say the first couple of years were really labour intensive because you have one chance to design the right building,” MacVicar says.

“So we spent a lot of time asking a lot of questions about what we don’t like about our existing buildings, where we see the future of how we deliver care. We always ask the question, ‘Is this idea, this design idea, is it friendly to our staff?’”

Queens Manor shared this photo on its Facebook page of the progress of the new long-term care home in Liverpool. (Queens Manor Facebook page)

All bedrooms in the new manor will be single occupancy with private bathrooms. And each room will also have ceiling lifts that extend to the bathroom, which will make it easier for staff to help residents with mobility issues move anywhere in their room or bathroom.

“It enhances dignity for our residents, but it also enhances safety for our staff. So some lifts that may have been one- or two-person assist can be done by one person. And so it frees up staff, it prevents workplace injuries. It’s a real enhancement to our facility that you won’t see in others.”

MacVicar says that’s only one of many improvements over existing facilities. 

From better multi-use spaces to help with infection control to something as seemingly simple as how the complex is oriented on the site, he said it was important to emphasize the dignity and safety of residents and staff alike in the design.

“There are two elements to providing care – the people and there’s the environment, your infrastructure,” he said.

“Our people provide excellent care, they demonstrate excellence every day, but our building hasn’t matched that. I think you’ll see a building that is friendly to its staff, which in turn means that it just enhances their ability to provide excellent care. Residents will have more privacy, more dignity. Spaces will be bright. It will be very difficult for you to find a space in that facility that doesn’t have a window. And it is a facility and institution that does not feel like a facility or an institution. It will feel like a home.”

He said staff and the design team spent a lot of time investigating what worked at newer facilities elsewhere in the province and talking to people at those facilities to see what they would improve if they could.

“So to address the future, we looked backwards a bit to some of the facilities that have already been built and we used these visits as an opportunity to test our ideas to see if what looks good on paper actually works in practice.”

MacVicar said it was also important to choose a new location that would make the manor visible to the whole community.

“So there was a shift towards a location that would take our residents and embed into the centre of the community rather than what I call warehousing seniors on a hill out of sight, out of mind. And when your community is forced to look at your long-term care facility every day it prevents them from being forgotten, which I think quite clearly this location will prevent that from happening.”

Construction is on track for residents to move in sometime in the fall of 2026. 

Before that, though, the new facility needs a new name. 

“We want to make sure our new home captures the legacy of both organizations but we also want to make sure we come together under a new brand, a new name.”

MacVicar said the community will have a chance during a naming campaign this fall to give their input on what the new long-term care home in Queens County will be called.

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Region of Queens councillors have approved an extra $33,272 in work at Hillsview Acres to prepare for elevator upgrades at the facility. (Facebook)

UPDATED 3:55 p.m. Friday

It’s going to cost a little more to upgrade the elevator at a nursing home in north Queens.

Region of Queens councillors held a special meeting on Wednesday to approve an extra $33,272 for electrical and alarm panel work at Hillsview Acres in Greenfield.

The region owns and operates the 29-bed long-term care home.

Joanne Veinotte, the region’s director of corporate services, told councillors that in 2022, the contractor responsible for maintaining and inspecting the elevator told staff “that it was nearing its end of life. Should something happen to the elevator we would not be able to replace it in a timely manner.”

Council had already approved $86,250 in their 2023/24 capital budget for the work on the facility’s elevator.

But when the elevator contractor, TK Elevator, visited Hillsview in the spring, workers found that the existing alarm panel and supporting electrical components needed to be upgraded to accommodate the work on the electrical components of the elevator.

The extra costs break down as follows:

• Alarm panel upgrade – $21,913
• Basement changes to accommodate new access – $2,077
• Electrical work to install new panel $7,914.50

Veinotte told councillors that the elevator contractor is due to be at the facility in the second week of August to do the work.

“All of the panel work has to be done before they come which is why we had this sense of urgency to come and ask for council’s approval for this unbudgeted expense.”

Councillors voted unanimously to approve the extra cost and to fund it from the Hillsview Acres reserve fund, which sits at more than $800,000.

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(L-R)Christopher Clarke, Kim Masland, Darlene Norman and Andrew MacVicar at the groundbreaking for the new Queens long term care facility. Photo Ed Halverson

Years of wrangling to get financing and another two years of planning culminated in a groundbreaking ceremony Monday at the site of the new Queens long-term care home.

Public Works Minister and MLA for Queens Kim Masland and Mayor Darlene Norman joined Queens Manor Executive Director Andrew MacVicar and Board Chair Christopher Clarke at the podium to announce the first physical steps to building the new facility across the parking lot from Queens Place.

In her remarks, Masland said providing a new long-term care home is the reason she got into politics.

“I know Christopher, when he came to me we started talking about this in 2017 when I was elected and I said if I ever make government I’ll make you one promise and it’s the only promise I’m going to make anyone and that is I will deliver the funds for a new long-term care facility in Queens, and here we are.”

Once completed, the new care home will replace the county’s two existing facilities, the privately run Queens Manor and the Region of Queens’ Hillsview Acres.

Norman says the municipal facility has served its purpose for decades and with the new care home, residents have a lot to look forward to.

“It’s been part of the Region for so long, there will be many that will miss it. But to know that the residents are moving into a new facility surrounded by people and children and playgrounds and skate parks and life, it’s a wonderful thing.”

Combined, the aging facilities can currently accommodate 90 residents while the new home will increase that capacity by 22 bringing the total number of available beds in Queens up to 112.

MacVicar says the building is designed with the most modern best practices in mind and was the result of much consultation between residents, staff and professional architects.

“We were very keen to include the people who will use the facility on a day-to-day basis, hands on. So, we included people who work in laundry, people who work in the kitchen, our CCAs our nurses, our environmental staff, our residents, family input, all the way up to board input, and just overall community input. There are a lot of hands and a lot of minds that were involved in the creation of the plan.”

Construction of the new Queens long term care home gets underway. Photo Ed Halverson

Clarke says he’s worked since 2013 to get a new long-term care facility for Queens and is delighted the province stepped up to secure financing.

“It’s a little under $100 million. Nova Scotia Housing is financing the project for the Queens Manor board. We will own the facility. It will be mortgaged, I suspect, over 40 years so we repay Nova Scotia Housing to pay down that mortgage.”

The new, as yet unnamed long-term care home is scheduled to open in 2026.

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Site plan for new Queens Long Term Care Home. Photo Region of Queens Council Agenda

The Queens Home for Special Care Society is asking the municipality to sell them more land and help cover the costs of building a road to the new care home being built near Queens Place.

At the recent Region of Queens Council meeting society chair Christopher Clarke and Executive Director of Queens Manor Andrew MacVicar appealed to council to cover part of the $400,000 they estimate it will cost to build a road and underground infrastructure to the new facility.

The society is paying close to a million dollars to buy the land at Queens Crossing from the municipality.

In the past, regional council has reinvested proceeds of land sales at that location back into the site.

The current council decided last month to not extend the Queens Place Road when they voted against building the new library on the site.

That left responsibility for building a road to the new care facility with the Queens Home for Special Care Society.

When addressing council, Clarke said their construction timelines are extremely tight and road construction to the new home site must begin this summer.

“Deputy Mayor, it has to be this year for us. Obviously the first thing that we do is to start pushing dirt to start construction,” said Clarke. “We hope to be doing that in July, August, kind of thing, so yes, we’ve got to do it tout de suite.”

Including the road construction in their plans may mean the society will have to move the entire build closer to the road by almost 70 metres.

Clarke explains the design is planned with residents and staff in mind to enjoy a southwest view that will maximize the light.

Moving the build will allow the construction to proceed without reorienting the building.

“When you’re dealing with seniors in homes is that it will also be facing activity at Queens Place,” said Clarke. “The coming and going, the people going to the skateboard park, even people in the parking lot we know from the Manor that anything happening outside the Manor is a is a key interest to the residents there and so the orientation of that building which had been carefully planned, is important.”

Mayor Darlene Norman says she has heard from the Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing expressing their concern that the province is providing a million dollars to pay for the land and the municipality is unwilling to build a road to the new care home.

Norman would like the municipality to be a good partner in this important project.

“In my opinion, we need to do what I believe our area residents feel is right. And I suspect the majority of people in Queens County would expect us, if we’re getting $1,000,000 so the province can build, along with the Queens Care Society, can build this exceptional replacement facility for Hillsview and Queens Manor, that we build them a road to the driveway,”said Norman.

Council will consider the request and make a decision on funding at a future council meeting.

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The proposed site for the new library at Queens Place lies at the end of the driveway beside the sledding hill. Photo Ed Halverson

Region of Queens Council will revisit the decision to build the new public library at Queens Place.

Several councillors have expressed they didn’t have a full picture of the costs involved in locating the new library at Queens Place when they voted in January.

At issue is an estimated $950,000 cost to extend the road, sidewalks, and underground water and sewer infrastructure to accommodate the new build.

At the last council meeting CAO Chris McNeill explained that while it is not policy, it has been councils’ practice to reinvest the proceeds from the land sales at Queens Place back into the site.

Queens sold a large plot for the construction of the new long-term care facility replacing Queens Manor and Hillsview Manor.

The new road would reach the library as well as the new long-term care home.

Because it wasn’t infrastructure work dedicated to the library build, it wasn’t included when the costs were tallied to locate the library on the site.

Councillor Maddie Charlton says the $950,000 puts the site preparation costs at Queens Place far higher than any of the other seven sites that were being considered.

She says the Region has many priorities and it should be up to council to decide if they want to allocate $950,000 for Queens Place or if it could be used on another project.

That led to this exchange at the last meeting between Councillor Charlton and Mayor Darlene Norman.

“It sounds to me like the library committee was under the assumption that this was a signed deal, that infrastructure was happening,” said Charlton, “and we didn’t have an opportunity to discuss that’s how we want to spend that money.”

Norman replied, “There is a way to change your mind about when new information comes forward and it is called resending emotion.”

Mayor Norman is concerned if council can’t agree to build a new library at Queens Place it may never be built.

“There may even be a discussion at some point in time, we may even get back to why do we need a new library and all other things. I mean, I really don’t know why council cannot just agree that Queens Place is a great place to put a library which we are committed to do, you know,” said Norman. “Library services are part of our responsibility and it’s a library for Queens County. It’s not a Liverpool library, it’s a library for Queens County. And if we have $1,000,000 from the sale of land and we want to put that into roads, sidewalk that may assist the Manor, well isn’t that a great thing?”

Council will vote if they want to rescind the motion to build the library at Queens Place during their next meeting March 14.

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NDP Caucus in Mahone Bay. Leader Claudia Chender is fourth from the right. Photo Nova Scotia NDP

NDP Leader Claudia Chender says Nova Scotians want proof that improvements are being made to the healthcare system.

Chender made the comments at the party’s caucus meeting being held in Mahone Bay Monday.

She says every week Nova Scotians hear government is making healthcare better while the number of people without access to primary care keeps growing.

“We just get sort of assurances that things are getting better but no evidence that things are getting better,” said Chender. “If you talk to the average Nova Scotian, I have yet to have a conversation in the last six months with anybody about health care who would argue that anything has improved people are seeing a steady decline and it’s, it’s very concerning.”

Chender sees a need for more long-term care facilities to open more beds in hospitals.

“In Dartmouth for instance, at any given time around half of the inpatient beds at the Dartmouth General Hospital are patients who have been approved for long term care. They don’t need to be there. It is clear that we need more long-term care,” said Chender. “The Liberal government built almost no long-term care beds in over eight years, and we pushed for it that whole time and I think we’re seeing some of the results of that now in the challenges were having in our hospitals.”

Chender says a model based on the collaborative care centres which her party began to implement when they were in power would provide people with access to healthcare professionals.

She says combining multiple ways to access care under one roof would allow a person to come in, be triaged and then directed to the appropriate caregiver.

“We believe that we every Nova Scotia needs to be attached to a single practice. That may not mean that you get to see a doctor all the time. You might see a nurse practitioner, you might see a physician assistant, you might see a pharmacist or social worker depending on what you need, but your file lives in a certain place and your care is coordinated,” said Chender.

The NDP leader says considering the number of baby boomers heading into retirement and needing medical care, it’s widely recognized people will have to adjust to the reality of not having a family doctor, not just in this province but across the country.

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photo Ed Halverson

Region of Queens Council packed a lot into their final meeting of the year.

Following a public meeting that took most of the morning, council voted against selling the South Shore Regional Airport. Instead, they will continue to operate the facility and will look to sign the Nova Scotia Drag Racers Association and the South Shore Flying Club to new leases.

Rumclo Developments Ltd and Van Der Pas design made a presentation proposing to build 124 units on 23 acres of waterfrontage at 133 Shore Road if the Region agrees to pick up the $1.5 million tab to extend water service to the development.

Council will weigh the proposal and make the decision as part of the upcoming annual budget process.

Representatives of Hillsview Acres Long Term Care home provided a yearly update. While all regular positions are filled, the facility is searching for part-time staff.

Queens Manor has been providing some assistance to Hillsview Acres.

Both facilities will be merged and replaced when the new Long Term Care Home is built and ready in four years.

A couple of items that have been bouncing around the latest agendas have been resolved.

Council accepted terms of reference for the new pool committee, voted down spending up to $10,000 towards the cost of creating a Bioeconomic Development Zone and will prioritize clearing shrubs that obstructs traffic at Market and Henry Hensey Drive.

Councillors Maddie Charlton and David Brown will sit on a committee to update the Region’s communications strategy.

Council also considered a Development Agreement that would allow a 7-unit short term rental building in Hunts Point to be converted to multi-unit residential housing.

A public hearing on the matter will be held in council chambers January 10.

Council agreed to replace a 2010 work truck that is past its useable life with a new ¾ ton for $75,000 plus tax.

The Region will write off almost $10,000 in uncollectable debt owed to the municipality to get it off the books.

Council received a staff report detailing when council could request a traffic study.

They were informed they could make the request when making an amendment to the Land Use Bylaw or when adopting a Development Agreement but generally the decision to trigger a traffic study is left to the engineer or planner of the traffic authority.

And finally, Region Staff will now be calling for the tow truck if a vehicle is impeding snow clearing operations.

RCMP informed the municipality they don’t have the available personnel to police those parking violations, but it is within the regions authority to do so.

The next council meeting will be held in council chambers starting at 9:00 am on January 10.

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The preferred option for the new long-term care facility coming to Queens Place. Credit: Queens Care Building Society submission to Region of Queens Council

The Chair of the Queens Care Building Society says now that a site has been secured, they can close in on a final design for the new Queens long-term care facility.

Christopher Clark was reacting to Tuesday’s decision by Region of Queens council to sell the society 11 acres of land at Queens Place.

Clark says the province has outlined an 11-step process for building long-term care facilities and moving into the design phase puts them at step 3.

“As we complete each step it’s submitted to government for approval to make sure that we’re meeting their standards, not going overboard with spending money and so on,” said Clark. “By the time we get to step five, complete step five, the government will approve the whole thing and we can start construction.”

Clark says at this point in the process the group envisions the 112-bed facility will be situated on one level next to the Best Western with the entrance to the building facing Queens Place Emera centre.

He would like to see a park that is accessible to both residents and the public created at the front of the building and points out the new facility will tie into the existing resources people already enjoy on the site.

“The walking trail that goes around Queens Place, which is sacred land, really, won’t be affected,” said Clark. “In fact, it will become a real asset to the facility because it’s surfaced with crusher dust, so easier to push a wheelchair on and so people will be out there exercising or being taken around the trail.”

Clark is quick to note they have a team of architects and builders who are very experienced at designing long-term care facilities that integrate into the surrounding community, and the fine details of the plan will be worked out over the coming months.

He says no matter what the final design looks like, the experience for residents at the new facility will be far superior to the existing Queens Manor and Hillsview Acres.

Putting aside the obvious health benefits to residents, Clark says a new long-term care facility will also be a major economic driver for Queens.

“The economics are huge. Construction, the jobs, looking after people. You know, we have 103 people working at the Manor now, Hillsview Acres has, I think about 13. But with a new facility with 112 individual rooms, we’re going to need a much greater staff. So, there will be a lot of jobs and a lot of money being spent in the community.”

Clark expects the design work should be complete by early 2023 and is optimistic the new facility could be opening its doors by Labour Day 2025.

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Future site of Queens long-term care facility. Photo Ed Halverson

Queens new long term care facility has found a home at Queens Place.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Region of Queens council voted to sell 11 acres of land adjacent to Highway 103 and the Best Western to the Queens Care Building Society.

Over the course of an hour, members of the society outlined plans for the new provincially funded, 112 bed facility.

The society stressed the need to secure land to keep the process moving on a timeline that will see a replacement for Queens Manor and Hillsview Acres in place before Labour Day of 2025.

Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman was enthusiastic in praising her fellow councillors for their unity on this project.

“I am so proud of the council of the Region of Queens who were unanimous in this decision,” said Norman.

The mayor says the 479,000 square feet of land will be sold at $2 a square foot, with the Region receiving somewhere in the neighbourhood of $960,000 with the money being reinvested into the development of the new site.

“That million dollars will be for infrastructure and improvements to all the lands at Queens Crossing,” said Norman.

The preferred option for the new long-term care facility coming to Queens Place. Credit: Queens Care Building Society submission to Region of Queens Council

The land around Queens Place Emera Centre has been tied to a couple of high-profile projects in recent months.

The site was the unanimous choice of the library steering committee to replace the Thomas Raddall Library before the idea was rejected by council.

The Queens Community Aquatic Society is also looking at the location to build a new pool, and construction of the new universally designed play park is currently underway.

Norman says residents of Queens will see the benefit of selling the land and securing the site for the new long-term care facility for years to come.

“And all of those things need infrastructure and money because they will belong to the Region,” said Norman. “This is a good start at developing the infrastructure for other future projects.”

Norman says building the new long-term care facility next to Queens Place means residents will be integrated into the community in which they live.

And while the province is footing the bill for the facility, the Region will continue to offer whatever technical and administrative help the Queens Care Building Society may need to see this project through to completion.

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Queens General Hospital. Photo Ed Halverson

The provincial government is following through on a promise to make up-to-date healthcare data available to Nova Scotians.

Residents can now see the daily or most current information for hospitals across the province for a wide range of stats like hospital occupancy, emergency department visits and number of surgeries performed.

Information is presented on an interactive dashboard and gathered from several sources including hospital inpatient, surgical and emergency data bases, continuing care home support and long-term care reports and EHS.

The data contains no information which could identify individual patients.

Government announced the website would be coming as part of their Action for Health plan back in April.

In a release, Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson said, “Change won’t happen overnight. But by sharing this information now, we are holding ourselves accountable to make sure change happens and the system improves in the areas most important to Nova Scotians.”

The website also tracks continuing care services such as the number of people waitlisted for home support and how many have been admitted to long-term care facilities.

EHS is providing weekly numbers of calls, response times and average time it takes to offload patients at each hospital.

The Action for Health website also shows the most current numbers on doctor and nurse recruitment and retention and the number of Nova Scotians without a primary care provider.

The website can be found at novascotia.ca/actionforhealth.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
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Finance Minister Allan MacMaster stands to present the 2022-23 budget in the Nova Scotia Legislature March 29, 2022. Photo Communications Nova Scotia

An additional $413 million in health care spending will help push the provincial deficit to $506 million this year.

The first full budget released by the PCs since winning government last August focused on delivering on some of the promises made during that campaign.

The top priority identified in Tuesday’s budget is addressing the province’s ailing healthcare system.

Nova Scotia will spend $5.7 billion on health care this year, which accounts for 43 percent of the total $13.2 billion budget

Some of that money will make virtual care available to people waiting for a family doctor, extend operating room times to help clear a backlog of surgeries, create 200 new nursing seats at NSCC, and help recruits new medical professionals to the province.

Nova Scotia is also spending to improve long-term care.

Government has allocated $66 million for continuing care assistants to ensure they are the highest paid in Atlantic Canada.

Money is also being spent to recruit train and keep CCAs and keep seniors in their own homes longer.

A lack of housing has been identified as a major issue in Nova Scotia.

Government is attempting to keep housing stock in the hands of Nova Scotians with the addition of a five percent deed transfer tax for non-residents and a property tax of $2 per $100 of assessed value on buildings with three or less units owned by non-residents.

Finance Minister Allan MacMaster says the new measures accomplish a couple of goals.

“It will be a significant revenue generator and it’s going to take us as a couple of years to build a proper database to determine who actually is non-resident. We certainly have sources of information, but a database will be built over a couple of years,” said MacMaster. “For some it may result in properties becoming available to Nova Scotians who are struggling to find them right now.”

MacMaster says government is investing in Nova Scotia now but don’t expect to see a pattern of unchecked spending.

“This first budget, our focus is on fixing healthcare and our focus is investment in a province that’s growing,” said MacMaster. “In the future, I think what I would say to people who might be concerned about the degree of spending in this budget is that we are showing a track back towards reduced deficits going forward.”

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Executive Director Annette Hartlen looks on as Queens Mayor Darlene Norman and MLA Kim Masland cut the ribbon to open the Caledonia home support office in September 2021. Photo Queens County Home Support

Continuing care assistants across Nova Scotia are getting a significant raise.

At Wednesday’s COVID briefing Premier Tim Houston announced the province will spend $65 million to increase the salaries of all publicly funded CCAs by 23 percent.

That will bring the top paid CCAs annual salary to $48,419, an annual increase of close to $9,000.

Houston hopes raising wages to near the highest levels in the country will entice people to return to the field.

“To those of you who have felt undervalued to the point that you left the profession, please come back. We need you now more than ever,” said Houston. “We want you; we need you; we value you and we respect you.”

Executive Director with Queens County Home Support Annette Hartlen says their organization has lost approximately 25 percent of their staff during the pandemic.

“Prior to the pandemic we had between 60 and 70. Unfortunately with the pandemic we’re down now to about 45 but we’re hoping of course with this increase, because staffing has been a huge challenge,” said Hartlen. “Like I say not only for us but for many other providers of home support services and in long term care, we’re hoping that this will entice more people into the profession.”

Hartlen says having fewer workers to cover the same number of clients puts a higher burden on the remaining CCAs and many people burn out.

“I worry about them because they’re working 40, 50 hours, [sometimes] 60 hours a week trying to get as many client visits in as they can, and many needs met. I admire them for what they are doing and I’m hoping we’ll soon be able to give them a reprieve,” said Hartlen.

She says the representatives from across her profession have been meeting with government about the need to address their challenges and it seems the message is getting through.

“The money is great and it goes a long way of helping our CCAs,” said Hartlen. “But I think it’s the government’s recognition of their value that is more important.”

The pay raise goes into effect February 10.

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Queens Manor, Liverpool. Photo Ed Halverson

As the omicron variant runs rampant across Nova Scotia, keeping up morale for staff and residents at Queens Manor has become a full-time job.

The long-term care home in Liverpool was declared an outbreak facility after a staff member tested positive December 29 and the first resident followed on January 2.

Executive Director Andrew MacVicar says omicron is present throughout the community and his focus is to eliminate the stigma associated with a positive test among the staff.

“It’s possible that you could do everything right, which our staff are doing, and be, “the one” to bring it into the building when in reality, there will never be a “one” person who brings it into the building, in all likelihood, with the volume of viral activity that’s out there,” said MacVicar.

Long-term care homes were struggling to hire enough workers before the pandemic hit and MacVicar says the most recent outbreak has only made a tough situation worse.

“When you’re starting with sometimes bare-bones staffing, and you are removing a significant number of people with symptoms that would not have prevented them from working in the past, it significantly impacts your ability to fully staff your facility,” said MacVicar.

He says despite dealing with several staff off work because they have either tested positive or been a close contact of someone with a positive test, Queens Manor is still providing a high-level of care to their residents.

But backfilling those positions to care for residents means there is no staff available to train and monitor visitors coming to the facility.

Which is why Queens Manor is currently closed to all visitors except for residents undergoing end of life care.

MacVicar says decreased staff numbers means not even designated caregivers are permitted until the facility completes a two-week circuit breaker.

“We are putting our plan in place to reintroduce designated caregivers as soon as we can because they are an integral part of providing care here.”

MacVicar says Queens Manor is turning a corner as the first people to test positive return.

“As we have residents come off isolation from being positive and staff returning to work from being positive I think it’s a very important step towards realizing that we’re going to be okay and we can live with COVID-19, however that is defined in the future.”

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Queens MLA Kim Masland. Photo Ed Halverson

The MLA for Queens sat down with reporter Ed Halverson just before Christmas to discuss a busy 2021.

Kim Masland was re-elected and moved to the government side of the legislature when the PC’s won a majority, was appointed Minister of Public Works and government house leader shortly afterwards and contracted COVID-19 .

The interview is broken into four parts.

In part one, Masland discusses the quick learning curve when forming government.

Another challenge for Masland was contracting COVID, discussed in the second part of the interview.

Healthcare and long term care were hot button topics on the doorstep during the election campaign. The PCs promised to fix the system and Masland describes how her party is working to do so.

The interview wraps up with issues Masland is working to address in Queens including resolving long-standing concerns at Carter’s Beach and the affordable housing crisis.

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Twitter: @edwardhalverson

Photo Ed Halverson

A new long term care home is coming to Queens.

The province announced the new facility will replace Hillsview Acres and Queens Manor, increasing the number of available beds from 90 to 96.

Executive Director at Queens Manor Andrew MacVicar says the new facility will replace aging infrastructure that no longer meets the needs of the people living there.

“What I’m really excited about is to have a facility that matches the excellence of the people that work there and provide the residents with single rooms, single bathrooms, more space and state of the art accommodations that meet national standards for long term care,” said MacVicar.

A spokesperson from the Department of Seniors and Long-Term Care says costs are still be tabulated and won’t be finalized until the bidding process is complete.

A press release from Queens Manor estimates the cost of the final project will be in the neighbourhood of $50 million, funded solely by the province.

The number and severity of COVID cases in long-term care facilities at the start of the pandemic demonstrated how residents are disproportionately affected by infectious outbreaks.

MacVicar says that has laid bare the need for better tools to prevent the spread of infectious disease in long term care facilities across the province.

“You’ve got staff who are taking all the right measures and putting all the measures in place to prevent the spread, but you’re doing it in an environment that isn’t giving you an advantage. What changes now is that the environment will match the measures that are put in place to prevent that infection from spreading,” said MacVicar.

The province has issued a request for proposals to find a project manager to lead the design and construction of the facility.

MacVicar says he will bring forward any ideas staff at the existing facilities may have about how to make the new build better.

“On any given day I’m sure somebody that works at Queens Manor, Hillsview Acres says, you know, if I was building a new Queens Manor this is what I’d do,” said MacVicar. “So, I want to hear those ideas from the staff and bring them to the design team as well.”

MacVicar says when the new facility opens its doors around the end of December 2024 it will be the culmination of many people’s efforts over many years.

“As a community, it’s a very exciting moment. I know that a lot of people have worked really hard on this over the years,” said MacVicar. “It’s exciting for everyone who’s put the hard work in. But lots of hard work now begins.

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Iain Rankin, Susan MacLeod and MacLeod campaign manager John Simmonds at Queens Manor. Photo Nova Scotia Liberal Party

The Liberals are planning to replace Queens Manor and Hillsview Acres with a new consolidated facility.

Liberal leader Iain Rankin was at Queens Manor in Liverpool Thursday with Queens Liberal Candidate Susan MacLeod to announce the new facility will add six more beds to increase the combined capacity of the two locations from 90 to 96 beds.

Rankin says the liberal government had already been moving to modernize long-term care homes and the COVID-19 pandemic has brought that need home.

“It’s more pronounced, especially looking at higher quality of infection control that we need to have single rooms with no shared washrooms and more modern equipment in the homes,” said Rankin.

A site for the new long-term care home has not been decided. Rankin says a location will be determined as part of the tendering process.

The promise to replace the two aging care homes in Queens comes as a result of one of the last announcements the Liberal government made before calling the election.

The province pledged $152.6 million to renovate and replace almost 2,400 beds across 24 facilities in Nova Scotia and add a further 500 new beds to the Halifax region, where the demand is highest.

Rankin says the Liberals are also investing in workers to care for people in the long-term care homes.

“More workplace safety, we’ve increased pay and we’re allocating more spaces, you saw at the Nova Scotia Community College.”

Rankin says his government will address worker shortages by creating 276 spaces to train new licensed practical nurses, opening 30 seats – tuition free, for current continuing care assistants to upgrade their skills along with heavily recruiting to attract more careworkers to the province.

Government recently reached a collective agreement with the union representing a large number of CCAs that will see them receive an eight percent wage increase over the first two years of the contract.

Rankin says seniors and residents of long-term care homes are a priority for his party.

“We’re building on a lot of progress we’ve made recently. We’ve made significant, historic investments in our 21/22 budget. We’re building on some of that with an additional spend for staffing,” said Rankin. “We have the most aggressive capital plan including the largest single long-term care investment in our history. So we’re building on that. It’s targeted and we believe that it’s appropriate and fiscally responsible. Those that have been working on the front lines deserve this investment.”

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Queens Manor, Liverpool. Photo Ed Halverson

It’s likely two long-term care homes in Queens will be replaced according to Health and Wellness Minister Zach Churchill.

The province announced $96.5 million in funding to replace or repair 17 facilities including Hillsview Acres and Queens Manor.

Churchill says the department is in conversation with administrators and boards of the long term care homes to learn whether they feel a refit or rebuild is warranted.

“I suspect that all that is going to point towards new builds for these facilities,” said Churchill. “We’re also looking at increasing the bed spaces available in Queens County too. Looking at the age of the buildings, looking at the fact that we need more beds and we’re going to be building more beds in that area, these are likely going to be new builds.”

Churchill says the recent announcement will add 264 more new long-term care spaces across the province to the 236 beds previously announced in January for a total of 500 new spaces.

The provincial PC party has released a plan calling for the creation of 2,500 new long-term care spaces.

But the health minister says the department’s data doesn’t support the need for that many new beds.

“We use demographic analysis and modeling to determine what the need is going to be into the future and we build our plans based around the math and the science there,” said Churchill. “We do see a turnover in this sector of close to 3,000 people a year and what we want to do is reduce the wait time that people are waiting.”

Churchill says the five to six months people are now waiting to be placed in a long-term care facility will be cut to two months based on this announcement.

He says it’s important not to overbuild capacity, as demand for those beds will eventually drop off.

Of the 500 new beds announced, six will be built in Queens.

Churchill expects a decision on which facilities will be rebuilt will come over the next few months with groundbreaking to follow in short order.

Government is projecting to have the new facilities up and running by 2026-27.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
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