Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative government plans to follow through on an NDP pledge to build a new seniors’ housing complex in Flin Flon.
In its dying months, the NDP government announced it would demolish the derelict low-income family housing complex at 4 Hemlock Drive to make way for a new 20-unit seniors-only facility.
“The next step for this property is to complete the project design and construction tender estimate, which is expected to be done in early summer,” a provincial spokeswoman told The Reminder on Wednesday. “Demolition and construction will not proceed until after this initial work is done and the plans for the property are finalized and approved.”
The NDP had expected the two-storey facility to open in 2017. It was to include kitchen facilities and offer shared meals, exercise programs and care support services. No monetary figure for the project was ever released.
Residents living at the new complex were to pay 27 per cent of their income as rent, the same as at the seniors’ housing complex next door at 2 Hemlock Drive.
When then-MLA Clarence Pettersen announced the
project in late 2015, city councillor Karen MacKinnon referred to the need for seniors’ housing in Flin Flon as “major.” Mayor Cal Huntley spoke of a “huge demand.”
The province evacuated 4 Hemlock in 2012, citing safety concerns with the building that were deemed too costly to repair.
Neither the NDP nor the PCs announced plans to replace the 14 low-income family units lost when 4 Hemlock closed.
