While the issue of a seniors’ care facility in Lake Cowichan seems to have gone cold, with little progress in the past eight years, councillor Bob Day recently announced it was “time to turn up the burner” on the issue and begin looking at what the next step should be.
The town could be taking that next step soon, as they recently applied for a $19,850 “Age-friendly Community Planning and Project Grant” from the Seniors’ Housing and Support Initiative. If the town’s application is successful, Chief Administrative Officer Joe Fernandez said the money will be used to finance a study to determine what the needs of the local aging population are, and how to go about providing additional seniors’ housing and a care facility.
The development of a seniors’ care facility came up fairly frequently during last year’s municipal election, making an appearance on the platform of a majority of the candidates, including those elected.
Councillor Lorna Vomacka was especially vocal regarding the need for a seniors’ care facility.
“There’s definitely a need for a seniors’ care facility in Lake Cowichan,” Vomacka said. “If people are in Evergreen [Senior Housing], they need to be able to look after themselves. Once they need assisted care, they have to move to Duncan… Some of our doctors left Lake Cowichan two years ago, and a lot of our seniors left with them.”
The town previously set out to establish a seniors’ care facility back in 2007, when they attempted to purchase the J.H. Boyd property, located on Oak Lane. The property was to be redeveloped, though the town was never able to make a bid. When the town announced they would be seeking to borrow $765,000 in order to make the purchase, residents called for a referendum, and the loan was eventually voted down.
The property eventually landed in the hands of private developer John Kelly. Kelly had plans to redevelop the property, possibly into a 22-bed care facility along with affordable housing, though due to zoning and sewage issues, his plans fell through. Kelly still retains ownership of the property.
Vomacka said that if the town pursues the J.H. Boyd property again, borrowing money may not be necessary, and if it is, she’s confident that the outcome will be different.
“[The public’s] attitude has changed,” Vomacka said, “people are more educated on what was going on at the time. The developers who went in and purchased it walked into some stumbling blocks, and had a bad relationship with the town. We can’t buy the property if the developer isn’t interested in selling it.”
Vomacka said that she became aware of the economic benefits that a seniors’ care facility could bring to town while on a trip to Lake Cowichan’s sister town — Ohtaki, Japan. With nearly no commercial buildings in Ohtaki, Vomacka said she was curious as to how the residents make a living. She was told that most residents work for either the town, the school or the local seniors’ care facility.
“I found that very interesting,” Vomacka said. “There isn’t much business or many jobs in Lake Cowichan, so our only chance to revitalize the town is to keep the population up. Many of our pensioners are moving out of the area, and taking their pension cheques with them. If we’re losing our seniors, then how do we keep anyone else here?”
After bringing the issue up with the rest of council, Vomacka said the other councillors, particularly Bob Day and Carolyne Austin, were keen on the idea of prioritizing the seniors’ care facility.
While both Vomacka and Day said they didn’t expect the plan for the seniors’ care facility to be “shovel-ready” by the end of their terms in 2018, they were both confident that council could make significant progress in the planning stage of the project.
“It might be a few years before we see anything,” Vomacka said. “The town has a reputation for making things hard for developers, so lots of them don’t want to come here. Before we move ahead, we need to know how to go about it. Nobody at the table knows how right now, we don’t have the contacts yet. We need to have a forum and bring in MLAs, seniors, Island Health and say ‘okay, what’s our next step?’”
