‘Shovel-ready’ continuing care homes in Alberta get boost to address growing senior population

A continuing care facility in an undated photo. (CTV News Edmonton)

The government is working toward its goal of adding tens of thousands of continuing care spaces for aging Albertans in the next decade.

Assisted Living and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon announced $400 million in spending for 11 projects that would add 1,100 spaces for aging Albertans.

“These projects are shovel-ready. In fact, I’m going to be at the groundbreaking for some of them tomorrow,” Nixon said at a Wednesday press conference. “This means construction can begin sooner.”

The money is part of a multi-billion-dollar 10-year plan to address Alberta’s growing aging population. Currently, the province is home to about 865,000 seniors..

There are currently 2,200 continuing care spaces under construction, the province says, and about 30,000 provincially subsidized spaces already operating.

“All governments of all different political stripes have been investing in continuing care capital pretty consistently in the budget … but (Alberta Health Services) was not making those capital builds for some reason.”

Assisted Living Alberta (ALA), one the four health agencies that took over for AHS in 2025, committed to building as many as 15,000 extra continuing care spaces by 2035 to address the bottleneck in hospitals across the province.

Since becoming operational, the ALA has worked to drop the number of non-acute patients waiting in Alberta hospitals and emergency rooms.

“The sky’s the limit. As far as demand, we’ve seen it … the biggest challenge, frankly, is construction times. So we’re very focused on projects that are ready to go get the money out.”

These are the facilities getting this round of funding:

• $63.3 million for the AgeCare Aspen project in Calgary.
• $23.4 million for the Wing Kei Highland Park Expansion project in Calgary.
• $14.4 million for the AgeCare Shawnee project in Calgary.
• $29.4 million for the Optima Living: Hawthorne project in Cochrane.
• $75.3 million for the Golden Age Meadow Continuing Care project in Edmonton.
• $62.3 million for the Belle Rive Multi-Generational Housing project in Edmonton.
• $19.5 million for the Beverly Heights Seniors Community Conversion project in Edmonton.
• $45.9 million for the Salem Manor Society Continuing Care project in Leduc.
• $40.5 million for the Evergreen Care Village project in Red Deer.
• $4.4 million for the Optima Living: Hamlets at Red Deer Expansion project in Red Deer County.
• $23.2 million for the Optima Living: Sagebrush project in Wetaskiwin.

Nixon says 3,000 extra spaces (including the ones announced Wednesday) are slated to be built in the next 18 months.