From a law firm partner, to the DFO Regional Manager, to a Certified Change Agent to an architectural firm manager, four first-time well-qualified candidates seek council seats in the Town of Comox. These are the new faces hoping to win seats in the Oct. 17 municipal election.
Providence, Golden Life get new Comox Valley long-term beds
Golden Life’s Garden View Village in Kimberley / Photo by the Kimberley Bulletin
Providence, Golden Life get new Comox Valley long-term beds
By
This article will be updated with additional location reactions to the news as it comes in
Golden Life Management Corporation and Providence Residential Care Community society will share the Comox Valley’s 151 long-awaited additional residential care beds.
Minister of Health Adrian Dix made the announcement at the Florence Filberg Centre in Courtenay this morning. Local MLA Ronna-Rae Leonard also attended.
Golden Life, a Cranbrook-based company, will build 120 residential care beds and six hospice beds on property in Courtenay. The hospice beds include two new beds and the four existing beds that will move from The Views at St. Joseph.
Golden Life currently operates 13 seniors facilities; 10 in the British Columbia Kootenay region and three in Alberta. A fourth Alberta location will open soon.
Construction of the new Comox Valley facility will begin this summer and is expected to complete before the end of 2020.
They consist of the 21 temporary beds that Island Health opened at the former acute care hospital, which now become permanent, and an additional 10 new beds. The Views will convert the existing four hospice beds to respite beds.
“In addition to the RFP process, Providence Residential and Community Care Society … has an agreement to work with Island Health on a potential campus of care redevelopment plan,” according a Ministry of Health news release this morning.
The Views currently operates 116 residential care beds, which will be redeveloped to current standards as part of the agreement.
PRCC Vice-Chair Chris Kelsey, of Comox, could not say when redevelopment of the St. Joe’s property will begin.
Celeste Mullin, vice-president, Golden Life Management Corp. said, “We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the Minister of Health, Island Health and Comox Valley Hospice Society to bring exemplary housing, care and services to the Comox Valley. Our villages are more than bricks and mortar. They are vibrant and dynamic communities that support each person’s unique beliefs, values and wishes affording them the opportunity to direct and live their best quality of life.”
Chris Kelsey, chair of the St. Joseph’s board of directors, gave this statement to Decafnation.
“This announcement is a watershed moment for St. Joseph’s and our community. Over the past five or more years, we have been working hard planning a future role for the St. Joseph’s site that best serves the needs of our community. Our Board, management team, and staff are extremely grateful for this opportunity. This announcement allows PRCC and us, in partnership with Island Health, to take very concrete steps to implement our ambitious plans and to revolutionize the care that we provide to our most vulnerable citizens. We have always considered it to be an amazing privilege to serve our community, and we look forward to the hard work ahead and to the continuation of our mission.”
Who is Golden Life?
Golden Life’s founding history makes it an interesting choice to build the Comox Valley much-needed and twice-delayed long-term care beds.
In the 1990s, Cranbrook construction company owner, Endre Lillejord, tried to find housing for his mother that “supported independence and dignity,” but such facilities were not common then.
So Lillejord directed his Golden Life Construction company to build the facility he envisioned for his mother. He called it Joseph Creek Village, and his mother moved in with the first wave of residents in 1998.
The Comox Valley announcement is part of the Health Ministry’s $240 million three-year plan “to increase the direct care seniors receive in residential care homes in communities and across the province.”
Dix has set a target of 3.36 care hours per-resident-day, on average across health authorities, by 2021.
Good news for caregivers, nurses
Today’s announcement brings some good news for Comox Valley Hospital workers.
Island Health opened the temporary beds at St. Joe’s, called Mountain View, to ease serious overcapacity issues at the Comox Valley Hospital. Recently, there were more than 200 admitted patients in the hospital, which was designed for a maximum of 153 patients. That has stressed hospital staff.
Most of the extra patients no longer need acute care, but due to the current shortage of long-term care beds, they have nowhere to go.
The announcement is also good news for some family caregivers.
The shortage of long-term care and respite beds has caused problems for at-home caregivers, many of whom are exhausted and in crisis. The lack of available, publicly-funded beds has forced many family members to care for their loved ones beyond their capacity to do so.
Island Health issued a Request for Proposal for 70 new long-term care beds three years ago, but cancelled it a year later, and issued a new RFP last year.
Not everyone pleased
Today’s announcement hasn’t quelled the concerns of several caregiver groups in the Comox Valley, who fear the new beds won’t be enough.
“Very pleased to see the government finally take action on the crying need of two years ago,” caregiver Delores Broten told Decafnation.”But the need continues to grow and by the time these beds are ready, we will ned as many again.
Caregivers also fear a private operator will run a low-budget operation and eventually sell to an even larger private corporation with negative consequences for patients and their families.
They point to Retirement Concepts, a Canadian-owned company purchased by the Chinese insurance company Anbang in 2017, and later seized by the Chinese government over allegations of fraud.
Retirement Concepts ran 21 facilities from Quebec to BC, including the Comox Valley Seniors Village and Casa Loma, an independent living facility, where workers have been on strike.
Another source told Decafnation this morning that Comox Valley Seniors Village has been running without a Director of Care or a General Manager since September, and that there have been at least five complaints to the provincial licensing officer about the lack of supervision.
The source also said Seniors Village is literally rationing the jam for residents.
Golden Life employees gave the company mixed reviews on the Indeed Canada website. Most unfavorable reviews mentioned understaffing and wage issues. But the company got better reviews from five people who commented on another employee-review site called glassdoor.ca.
QUICK FACTS FROM BC HEALTH MINISTRY
— Residential care homes offer seniors 24-hour professional supervision and care in a safe and secure environment.
— Through the $240-million investment over three years, the average direct care hours in
Contact:B.C. will increase from 3.11 per-resident day in 2016, to 3.24 by 2019, reaching 3.36 by
2021.
— Progress has been made with almost 270,000 more care hours being provided throughout the province by converting part-time and casual staff to full time.
— New funding of $48.4 million in 2018 will add more than one million hours of direct care.
For more information on increasing staffing in residential care homes, visit here
GOLDEN LIFE’S
SENIORS FACILITIES
Castle Wood Village
Castlegar, BC
Columbia Garden Village
Invermere, BC
Crest View Village
Creston, BC
Garden View Village
Kimberley, BC
Joseph Creek Village
Cranbrook, BC
Lake View Village
Nelson, BC
Mountain Side Village
Fruitvale, BC
Rocky Mountain Village
Fernie, BC
Rose Wood Village
Trail, BC
Whispering Winds Village
Pincher Creek, AB
Silver Kettle Village
Grand Forks, BC
Evanston Grand Village
Calgary, AB
Grande Avenue Village
Cochrane, AB
Coming Soon
Seton, AB
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
More
Four first-time candidates seek council positions in Comox
Courtenay, Cumberland candidates respond to our seven-part questionnaire
So many candidates, so little time and opportunity to get to know them. With 47 people seeking mayors’s chairs or council seats, deciding who to vote for can boggle the mind. Don’t worry. The Decafnation traditional candidate questionnaire continues today with the responses from Courtenay and Cumberland candidates.
Municipal candidates hear about Comox Valley’s most pressing social issues
Candidates running in the Oct. 17 local government elections had the opportunity to hear first-hand from Comox Valley organizations on the front line of our most pressing social issues.
What does your vision of Comox look like? Six storey buildings down Comox Avenue?
Citizen concerns about increasing allowable building heights to six storeys are fueling this year’s emerging Town of Comox election issues — growth and community identity. Will the Comox of the future still have a small town feel or will it look like White Rock?
The City of Courtenay has chopped its total debt in half from 2012 to 2026
Here’s yet another way to understand the City of Courtenay’s financial management. The incumbent council has cut the the city’s total debt in half since 2012 and reduced its debt per capital by 64.7 percent during the same period. That’s fewer tax dollars spent on debt payments.
Provincial general election feels imminent — will the writ drop this week?
There are lots of signs pointing to Premier David Ebby calling for a BC general election as early as later this week. MLA Brennan Day will make an announcement in the next few days about whether he’ll run as an independent. And Courtenay Councillor Will Cole-Hamiltion withdrew his municipal re-election bid last Friday.
Courtenay’s controversial Sixth Street Bridge: Whose idea was it?
The idea for a pedestrian and cycling bridge at Sixth Street originated about 40 years ago and followed a roller coaster ride to completion. It might have never been built without the persuasive pleading from Downtown businesses in 2019. An effusive thumbs up from mayoral candidate Manno Theos might have helped, too.
Will Manno Theos win Courtenay in vote split? And are these candidates using AI?
What’s going on in this year’s local government elections? More candidates. More women candidates. Another possible vote split in Courtenay to favor the underdog. Many long-time veterans still hanging on. Fake social media posters and other trolls. And suspicions surfacing of plagiarism or AI use in candidate statements. Looks like a wild four-week ride. Buckle up!
Post-war attempt to ‘Run cities like a business’ by allowing sprawl failed miserably
After WWII, municipalities across Canada tried a private sector trick to generate revenue, but expanding a city’s tax base by allowing urban sprawl merely traded small temporary cash gains for the ticking time bomb of unfunded infrastructure liabilities … and the tax bill is now overdue
Fact: Courtenay property tax burden equal or lower than most same-sized BC cities
New candidates trying unseat Courtenay City Council incumbents claim the city’s property taxes are too high. But province-wide data shows that the city’s tax burden is the same or lower than same-sized municipalities. And City Council is leading the province with innovative fiscal policies
