Ontario Breaks Ground on New Long-Term Care Home in Simcoe County

Press Release

January 19, 2023

Stayner Care Centre will bring much-needed beds to the province

STAYNER — Construction is underway at the new Stayner Care Centre, a long-term care home in Simcoe County. This is part of the government’s $6.4 billion commitment to build more than 30,000 net new beds by 2028 and 28,000 upgraded long-term care beds across the province.

“Congratulations to Stayner Care Centre on their ground-breaking for a new home. Our government is fixing long-term care and a key part of that plan is building modern, safe, and comfortable homes for our seniors,” said Paul Calandra, Minister of Long-Term Care. “Two new long-term care development projects have been completed in Simcoe County since spring 2021. Today marks a significant milestone for Stayner Care Centre and will bring 79 new beds to the county. When building is completed, 128 residents will have a new place to call home, near their family and friends.”

The redeveloped home is expected to welcome its first residents in summer 2025 and will provide 79 new and 49 upgraded beds, for a total of 128 safe, modern, long-term care beds in Stayner. This brand new building will have specific design improvements, including private and basic rooms, no ward rooms, larger resident common areas and air conditioning throughout the home.

Stayner Care Centre Inc. has proposed to offer specialized health care and be part of a campus of care, which helps integrate the long-term care home into the broader health care system and ensures residents have access to the care they need. This upgraded home will help Ontario address the growing demand for long-term care, which has increased wait times for beds and contributed to hallway health care.

Once built, the home intends to offer culturally appropriate services to Francophone and Indigenous communities. The developer also intends to provide housing options for older adults, such as seniors apartments. This approach helps ensure residents have the freedom to choose the lifestyle and home supports which are most suitable for their current and future needs.

In addition to projects like Stayner Care Centre in Stayner, Ontario is supporting another 12 projects in Simcoe County, including the development of long-term care homes in Collingwood, Beeton, Elmvale, Penetanguishene, Innsifil, Barrie and Orillia. Together, these 13 projects will provide 1,061 new and 655 upgraded long-term care beds, for a total of 1,716 beds built to modern design standards.

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 three pillars: staffing and care; accountability, enforcement, and transparency; and building modern, safe, comfortable homes for seniors.

Quick Facts

The Ontario government is on track to build 30,000 much-needed net new long-term care beds in the province by 2028, and is redeveloping older beds to modern design standards. Through a $6.4 billion investment, Ontario has 31,705 new and 28,648 upgraded beds in the planning, construction and opening stages of the development process. This will help increase overall bed capacity, address long-term care waitlists and hallway health care, and provide our seniors the care they deserve.
The Ontario government is providing a supplemental increase to the construction funding subsidy to stimulate the start of construction by August 31, 2023 for more long-term care homes across the province, including Stayner Care Centre. This includes additional flexibility for not-for-profit homes to receive a portion of the funding as an up-front construction grant payable at the start of construction. More information about funding for long-term care home development is available here.
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 November 2022, more than 39,000 people were on the waitlist to access a long-term care bed in Ontario. The median wait time is 126 days for applicants to be placed in long-term care.

Quotes

“The significant expansion of the Stayner Care Centre with the addition of 79 new long-term care beds is great news for Simcoe—Grey. This is one of thirteen projects that will add over 1,000 new long-term care beds in Simcoe County and is part of our government’s investments to build modern, state-of-the-art long-term care homes to better serve seniors across the province.”
– Brian Saunderson
MPP for Simcoe—Grey

“We are thankful for the province’s commitment and support of the redevelopment of Stayner Care Centre. We anticipate the project to be complete by the summer of 2025. This project brings us much closer to realizing our vision for a campus of continuing care by combining retirement living, long-term care and seniors housing in order to attract more high-quality services and drive better outcomes for seniors.”

– David Jarlette
President, Jarlette Health Services

Additional Resources

2022 Ontario Budget: Ontario’s Plan to Build

Plan to Stay Open: Health System Stability and Recovery

Media Contacts

Jake Roseman
Office of the Minister of Long-Term Care
[email protected]

Ministry of Long-Term Care Media Line
Communications Branch
[email protected]

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