Ontario Breaks Ground on Long-Term Care Home in Pickering
New home will bring 200 much-needed long-term care beds to the province
PICKERING — Construction is underway on a new 200-bed long-term care home in Pickering. This home is one of 67 long-term care home projects fast-tracked with support from the Ontario government’s increased construction funding subsidy. This is part of the government’s commitment to build 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care beds across the province.
“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’s ground-breaking for a new long-term care home marks a significant milestone for Pickering and Durham Region. When construction is complete, 200 residents will have a new, modern and comfortable place to call home.”
The new home will provide 200 new beds and is expected to welcome its first residents in summer 2026. The three-storey building will feature design improvements, including an outdoor café/terrace and gardens for residents and visitors, larger 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 up to 32 residents, with dining and activity areas, lounges and bedrooms. The home has also proposed to include two 20-bed behavioural specialized units that support more vulnerable residents with complex care needs like dementia.
As a result of the government’s 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 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. 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
- The development project for north Pickering is a not-for-profit, municipal home that will be operated by the Regional Municipality of Durham.
- The new home is located at 1550 Alexander Knox Road in Pickering.
- As part of its plan to fix long-term care and address sector waitlists, the government is building 58,000 new and upgraded long-term care beds across the province.
- 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 December 2023, more than 44,000 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.