Members’ Statement: Long-Term Care in Belle River

Mr. Speaker, I have a good-news story from Essex county about long-term care. Arch Long-Term Care operates a 75-bed facility in Tilbury, but the building is old, and they want to build a new one only 15 minutes down the road, in the town of Belle River. It’s going to be brand new, state-of-the-art. It will have private rooms. It will have 160 beds—twice as many as the old facility. Of course, the NDP member before me opposed that idea. But because of this government’s progressive and compassionate policies, Arch applied for and received a licence to build the new facility in Belle River. That means the people of Tilbury and Belle River will now have twice as many beds, in a state-of-the-art facility that they didn’t have before.

I want to thank the Minister of Long-Term Care for ensuring that the people of Essex county—and indeed all Ontarians—receive access to the quality long-term care they deserve, in a safe, homelike setting, when and where they need it.