A third of the 33 seniors’ homes (MDA) promised for 2023 by the Legault government have not been delivered and almost all of the others have empty rooms, reveal the most recent data from the Ministry of Health on this flagship project. the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ).
At the most recent report, dated December 11, 17 MDAs were open in Quebec. Only two of these resources – the MDA of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts and Parc-de-la-Montagne, in Hull – were full, in a context of shortage of accommodation places for the elderly.
Elsewhere, several MDAs have a low occupancy rate: 41% in Repentigny and 50% in Saint-Martin-de-Beauce, Rivière-au-Renard and Black Lake (Thetford Mines), for example. These figures may be inflated since they include residents who are installed in MDA while renovations are taking place in the CHSLDs where they are housed, as written Of thesee last May.
In an email, the Ministry of Health could not say what proportion of MDA residents are there temporarily. “It is important to note that all residents admitted to an MDA can remain there permanently, even if their arrival is linked to the renovation of a CHSLD,” however, underlined spokesperson Marie-Pierre Blier.
An “extraordinary feat”
During the electoral campaign, in 2018, François Legault attached a budget of one billion to the project to build around thirty MDAs, which was to create 2,600 accommodation places. Thirty-three of the 46 houses promised by the CAQ were to be delivered in the fall of 2022. Their deadline was then postponed to 2023.
However, the most recent update from the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), which oversees the MDA, shows that the construction of two-thirds of the 33 houses promised for 2023 has been completed.
In a press release published on its website in December, the SQI wrote: “21 seniors’ homes delivered in 2023! » She welcomed an “extraordinary feat”, highlighting “the delicate context experienced by the construction industry”.
In 2022, the SQI had completed the construction of four MDAs. In total, 25 of these resources have therefore been “delivered”, but 17 are open, “since the stages linked to the preparation of premises, the delivery of furnishings and recruitment as well as the training of staff with a view to “reception of residents takes place during the months following delivery,” explained Mme Blier, from the Ministry of Health.
The “gradual opening of beds” in MDAs is linked to workforce challenges, she also wrote to Duty. Due to a lack of personnel, Quebec is leading an international recruitment campaign. “In partnership with the MIFI [ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration]this measure aims to hire 1,000 qualified nurses outside Canada over the coming years,” said Ms.me Blier.
In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the CISSS managed to hire 25 “international beneficiaries attendants”. They “will join our team in 2024,” wrote the CISSS media relations department in an email.
A 200 million MDA?
Asked about the construction costs of MDAs, the Ministry of Health and the SQI referred The duty to estimates dating back to May 2022. Thus, “the construction costs for the 46 seniors’ homes […] are $2.8 billion,” wrote Anne-Marie Gagnon of the SQI.
In 2018, the CAQ estimated its project at one billion dollars. The budget has continued to increase since then. In a recent newspaper interview French Canada, CAQ MP Louis Lemieux said he estimates that the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu MDA, expected in March 2024, will cost $200 billion — double the initial budget. The SQI’s estimates for this 192-seat facility, dated May 2022, are still 125 billion.
“It’s an approximation,” said MP Lemieux, in an interview with Duty. We don’t know the figures, but we assume that it has increased for all houses. »
He also recalled that current assessments suggest that MDAs will have rooms costing $800,000 to $1 million each. Still, the calculation is not so simple, he warned. The Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu installation, for example, could cost less because Quebec did not have to buy the land. On the other hand, the construction and plans of the MDA had to be reviewed due to the pandemic and the new standards it imposed, argued Mr. Lemieux.