WEST LORNE, ONTARIO, February 3, 2012 – Government representatives joined West Lorne Heritage Homes today for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the official grand opening of West Lorne Heritage Community Centre.
The wheelchair-accessible, energy-efficient facility will link two seniors’ housing complexes – Heritage Homes and the proposed second phase of Heritage Terrace. The Heritage Homes Community Hub will provide and coordinate programs, social services and community services, such as transportation, counselling, and information services, to assist seniors and people with disabilities with maintaining their quality of life. An open house to celebrate one of the Hub’s newest tenants, Talbot Trail Physiotherapy Clinic, was held today following the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Offering meeting spaces, recreational activities and meals, the Hub will also serve as an accessible centre open to all members of the community.
“Seniors in West Lorne will benefit tremendously from this new centre,” said Joe Preston, Member of Parliament for Elgin-Middlesex-London, on behalf of the Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. “The Heritage Community Centre will provide seniors with access to important services in the community, and our Government is proud to invest in such a worthy project.”
“Through targeted infrastructure investments, our government is helping to build stronger communities and create jobs forOntariofamilies,” said the Honourable Chris Bentley, Member of Provincial Parliament for London West. “This facility has not only created eight new jobs, but will provide new services and support to the West Elgin community and help residents live healthy and meaningful lives.”
“The Municipality of West Elgin is always happy to be part of initiatives that bring new infrastructure to the community,” said Bernie Wiehle, Mayor of the Municipality of West Elgin. “The Hub has already attracted two new service businesses and this will eliminate local residents having to travel to major centres for care.”
The governments of Canada and Ontario have each committed more than $232,000 toward this project. The Municipality of West Elgin and the West Elgin Community Health Centre (through the South West Local Health Integration Network) each contributed $100,000. West Lorne Heritage Homes Not For Profit Corporation contributed the remaining $35,000, bringing the total project cost to $700,000.
“The Hub will allow the Health Centre to accommodate future growth of our seniors programs and services,” said Andy Kroeker, Executive Director of the West Elgin Community Health Centre. “One of our goals is to strengthen the community’s capacity to promote healthy living for everyone and support aging for seniors and adults who are physically disabled.”
“The Hub is a great resource for our residents,” said Doug Staddon of West Lorne Heritage Homes. “Our next goal is to get the funding to build additional affordable seniors’ apartments for all the folks on our waiting list.”
The Government of Canada’s support for this project comes from the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, part of Canada’s Economic Action Plan. Thanks to Canada’s Economic Action Plan and strong economic and financial fundamentals, the Canadian economy has recovered from the global recession better than most other industrialized countries. Canada has been a leader among G-7 countries throughout the recovery with nearly 600,000 net new jobs created since July 2009.
This project also supports Building Together, the Government of Ontario’s long-term infrastructure plan to repair, rebuild and renew the province’s roads and highways, bridges, public transit, schools and postsecondary institutions, hospitals and courthouses. Ontario is investing $12.8 billion in infrastructure projects in 2011-12, bringing the government’s total infrastructure investments since 2003 to $75 billion. Building modern, efficient infrastructure has created or preserved close to 100,000 jobs each year, on average, making Ontario’s economy more productive and improving quality of life, now and in the future.
For additional information about investments in infrastructure, visit infrastructure.gc.ca.
For further information about Canada’s Economic Action Plan, visit actionplan.gc.ca.
For more information on how Ontario is revitalizing its infrastructure, visit ontario.ca/infrastructure.
Contacts:
Pierre Floréa
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities
613-991-0700
Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure
416-327-7226
Bernie Wiehle
Municipality of West Elgin
519-785-0560
Andy Kroeker
West ElginCommunity Health Centre
519-768-1715 x 2206
Doug Staddon
West Lorne Heritage Homes
519-768-3474
Infrastructure Canada
613-960-9251 or toll-free 1-877-250-7154
