Province to Build New Seniors' Homes

Residents of Cumberland County and the South Shore will benefit from seniors' homes that will be built in their communities.

The province has approved 22-bed residential-care facilities in the western part of south Cumberland County and for the Chester/New Ross area.

Health Minister Karen Casey announced today, April 30, the requests for proposals for these facilities are being prepared and will be called upon completion.

"Nova Scotians want to know that if they need it, residential-care facilities that offer a high quality of life and a high quality of care are available close to home," said Ms. Casey.

The facilities are part of Nova Scotia's 10-year Continuing Care Strategy. Under the strategy, the province will spend $262 million to add more than 1,300 new beds across the province by 2016.

The department did not receive any submissions in response to the original request for proposals which called for the beds to be at more than one location in each community. It has now clustered the number of beds into two larger facilities to attract responses from developers.