The province of Manitoba is putting $95 million toward a new personal care home in Winnipeg’s Bridgwater neighbourhood, but it’s not the first time, or the first government, to commit to the project.
“The first plans for this actually were brought forward in about 2014,” said Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara at a press conference Thursday, “and we saw for years and years that this plan just was not able to get off the ground.”
Winnipeg Mennonite Seniors Care Inc. (WMSCI) responded to the province’s request for proposal in 2013. They were awarded the contract, and a formal government announcement was made in December 2015.
WMSCI purchased a plot of land at the corner of Bridge Lake Drive and South Town Road in 2016, but the provincial election that year put the project on hold.
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“Once the new government came into power in 2016 it was re-announced, but then was essentially… put on hold until probably late 2022, 2023,” said Patric Dacquay, WMSCI’s executive director.
“We did do an open house to show some drawings to the Bridgwater community back in April 2023, and again elections came up in October of 2023.”
Despite the decade-long delay, Dacquay is excited to finally get shovels in the ground.
“We do look forward to working with the current government and working likely with the regional health authority as well in order to move the plans forward,” he said.
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Thursday the province will hold a series of public consultations, most of them beginning in June 2026. The minister did not give a concrete timeline for the project’s completion, but said the province was looking at “a couple of years.”
According to numbers from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, there are a total of 294 people waiting for a spot in a personal care home — 54 of them in hospital, 240 at home.
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