Whitehorse 10-bed continuing care facility behind schedule

Renovations to a new continuing care facility in downtown Whitehorse are more than two months behind schedule. 

The Yukon government is converting a building on Sixth Avenue, which it bought last winter from the Catholic order Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, into a 10-bed facility. 

The government planned to have residents moving in by mid-November, but renovations were not finished.  

Pat Living, director of communications for Health and Social Services, said there's been a delay in receiving the interior doors for the facility, which are being shipped from outside the territory. 

"The doors, obviously, because they're for rooms of persons who may be using a wheelchair ... they have to be larger than a residential door and they also have to be rated to fire coding." 

Meanwhile, work continues to equip the inside of the building with furniture and fixtures. The facility will have a small shared kitchen but Living said meals will be delivered from another, larger facility. It also won't have a therapy space. 

"It's for individuals who require a lower level of care," says Living. 

The original budget for the facility, including the purchase and renovation of the building, was about $2.9 million. 

The government is also working toward a new 150-bed facility in the Whistle Bend subdivision but that project is still years off, and this new downtown facility is expected to ease some of the pressure on the growing waiting list for urgent care.  

Living said the department will announce its updated timeline for opening in early February.