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

The executive director of Queens Manor says while people may not see shovels in the ground there’s lots of work going on behind the scenes in preparation to build the new long-term care home in Queens.

Andrew MacVicar says the design team of architects and engineers are meeting regularly with staff and frontline workers to ensure the new facility feels like home to the people living there.

The new home will have 112 bed capacity divided into groupings of 12 to 16 residents called resident neighborhoods.

MacVicar says placing residents together in smaller numbers allow them to get to know each other just as they do in any other neighbourhood.

He says whenever a new design idea is brought forward it is measured against a very simple standard.

“It’s a resident centred philosophy so everything we do in our design meetings, the questions we’re asking are: how does this benefit our residents, how does this create a homelike environment and then again, the very next question is how does it benefit our staff and how does it allow our staff to be the best they can be?” said MacVicar. “Because if the staff aren’t at their best that is a direct impact on resident care.”

The team behind the development have traveled to three other long term care homes across Nova Scotia which already have some of the design elements they’re considering in place.

MacVicar says some of the design elements they plan to incorporate from these conversations include an open kitchen so residents and staff can connect with each other as you would at home.

Staff also suggested allowing more sunlight into the building so the home doesn’t feel closed off.

MacVicar says one of the most important suggestions was to place the new facility in the heart of the community which is how the decision was made to build at Queens Place.

“Isolating seniors is not a good idea. And you want your seniors to look out their window and see the community that they lived in that they still live in,” said MacVicar. “They want to see people that they know going to hockey games and they want to see parents with their kids at the skate park and they want to see, believe it or not, they want to see the trucks on the 103. They want to see cars, they want to see movement, they want to see action.”

Queens’ new long-term care home is scheduled to open in early 2026.

MacVicar understands there is a lot of anticipation from the community around the new building and the planning team is keen to give everyone a look once the design plans are finalized.

“We’re excited to share. We’re really excited about this project; we’re really excited about the design. We can’t wait to open it; we want to share it with the community.”

MacVicar hopes people will begin to see some activity on the site later this year.

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Photo Ed Halverson

The sale of 11 acres of municipal land was the highlight of Tuesday’s Region of Queens council meeting.

The only session in August started with a presentation from the Queens Care Building Society providing an overview of the proposed new long-term care home set to replace Queens Manor and Hillsview Acres.

The four members representing the society highlighted the programs the new facility will provide along with one and two-storey options for construction of the new 112-bed structure.

The society’s request to secure municipal land adjacent to Queens Place and the Best Western hotel was granted during the in-camera portion of the meeting when council agreed to sell 11 acres for roughly $960,000.

Some long-standing items that had previously come before council were also approved.

Region staff will get to work crafting a bylaw to allow Queens to collect road levies on behalf of non-profit associations.

Mayor Darlene Norman says staff has assured council they have the capacity to take on the added responsibility using existing resources.

“It only seems right and proper that we help them where we can,” said Norman. “For example, we do not put streetlights on their roads. We do not have personal garbage collection at their doorsteps. So, if we can, as a council, help them improve their roads, then it is the right thing for us to do.”

Council also agreed to a request from the South Shore Regional Hospital Foundation to provide $100,000 for their Brighter Days Capital Campaign.

The money will be the Region’s one-time contribution towards the $115 million redevelopment at the area’s regional hospital which will expand the size of the emergency room and surgical areas, add new dialysis chairs, MRI suite and CT-scanner among other upgrades.

The vote was not unanimous as some councillors argued with the ongoing doctor shortage and frequent ER closures, council should be supporting Queens General first.

Norman says South Shore Regional is just as much Queens’ hospital as Queens General.

“We could give a million dollars to our hospital, and it is not going to help our ER situation at this point in time. Our foundation, the Queens Hospital Foundation, have encouraged us to provide this money to South Shore Regional,” said Norman.

Council also decided to pay between $50,000 and $60,000 to build an accessible ramp at the Town Hall Arts and Cultural Centre.

The new ramp will be located between the centre and the neighbouring RBC building to provide access from the parking lot into the Astor Theatre lobby.

Council then heard the Region took in just over $300,000 from the sale of 23 properties at the July 18 tax sale.

Approximately $48,000 will go to paying off outstanding debt with the remaining $250,000 or so, being put in the Tax Sale Surplus Reserve Account where previous owners have up to 20 years to claim the proceeds from the sale.

The first quarter financial review indicated the Region will be paying an additional $150,000 for garbage collection this year to cover the increase in fuel costs.

The original estimate was negotiated based on a cost of 89.64 cents per litre and in the past few months, the price of fuel has routinely been a dollar or more per litre above that.

Council was also made aware of human resource changes to the Region’s employee handbook to make the policies more inclusive and in keeping with 2022 standards.

Some of the policies hadn’t been updated in 20 years.

And the planning and development department is looking to increase the fees for some services to better reflect the cost of providing permitting and development amendments.

Council then moved in camera and approved the sale of the lot for the new long-term care facility as well as a piece of property in Milton for a multi-unit housing development.

Council will not meet again until the second Tuesday in September.

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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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Photo Ed Halverson

Repairs at Hillsview Acres long term-care home will have to wait after proposals came back way over budget.

The province had approved $273,000 to update washrooms, stairs and entry doors at the municipally owned facility.

Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman says the bids came back at $475,000 and $678,000.

“The administrator knew what needed to be done so contacted some contractors and came up with estimates that led us to the $273,000 price,” said Norman. I guess what was failed to be recognized is that this isn’t the same as doing repairs on your home.”

Norman says the repairs to the long-term care home must meet similar standards to hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

While the Region of Queens has a reserve fund set aside for Hillsview Acres, Norman says it’s up to the province to cover operational costs.

A new long-term care home is planned to replace both Hillsview Acres and Queens Manor over the next few years.

Norman says when the new facility is built the municipality will need that reserve to cover costs until Hillsview Acres can be sold.

“Who knows if there’s no buyer for it? Who knows what the cost would be if it has to be demolished? Which I hope that it does not get there,” said Norman. “I hope there will be a useful use someone will have. But we can’t spend all of our Hillsview reserve money on items that need to be done according to department of health standards.”

Norman says the Region’s finance department is working directly with the provincial health department to come up with an appropriate estimate and secure the funding needed to complete the repairs.

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Hillsview Acres, Region of Queens, Darlene Norman, Queens Manor, renovations,

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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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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