The GNWT has released a selection of photos showing the progress of renovations to convert the old Stanton hospital building into a long-term care facility.
Now expected to be complete by the end of the year, the retrofit by CANA Construction has been ongoing since 2019.
Despite claims that the project has been plagued with issues, James Ross, a representative from the territorial government’s Department of Infrastructure, says that Yellowknife’s long-awaited long term care facility could be open to residents by 2023.
“Work on the Stanton Legacy Project is progressing with construction on the second and third floors of the building in the final stages of completion and over three-quarters of the work completed on the first floor,” said Ross.
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“The building is expected to be completed late 2022.”
Legacy Project will offer 90 long-awaited long-term and extended-care beds as well outpatient rehabilitation services like physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy.
In 2018, CBC reported the retrofitted building was expected to be operational by the summer of 2021.
Yellowknife’s long-term care project isn’t the only one delayed in the NWT. Hay River’s new long-term care home, which was originally slated to open in 2023, has been delayed until the 2027/28 year due to a change to the number of beds in the building, flooding this past spring, and rising construction costs.
Inuvik was also supposed to receive a new long-term care facility in 2023, but the project is now estimated to be complete in 2025 or 2026 due to higher-than-expected costs.
The last long-term care facility being planned is in Fort Smith and is slated for the 2027/28 year. This project was announced later than the others, when new data led the health department to determine it would be better to split the number of beds planned for Hay River between two new facilities in the South Slave communities instead.
