The province on Ontario kicked off the construction of a new long-term care home in the Greater Toronto area on Thursday afternoon.
The event was the launch of the new Runnymede Long-Term Care centre, which will provide 200 new beds and is expected to be open by the summer of 2023.
The formal online announcement was delayed for several minutes as Premier Ford and other dignitaries took part in an event at the construction site in Toronto.
Wearing white hard hats, construction safety vests and shovels in hand, the premier was joined by a group of others for a sod-turning ceremony and photo opportunity.
Ford told the gathered crowd that the new Runnymede Centre is part of the $2.6 billion commitment of the Ford Government to rebuilding Ontario's long-term care homes in the next 10 years. He said the new facility is one of many new LTC homes in the process of being renovated or replaced. Ford said his government is in the process of providing 35,000 new or redeveloped LTC beds across the province.
LTC Minister Phillips that after years of government neglect, the province is on a new course of completely rebuilding not only the long-term care homes, but also in providing thousands of newly trained staff members in the next ten years.
