The expansion at Rest Haven personal care home in Steinbach is still months away from seeing any residents move in, but a spokesperson says the new space is starting to feel more like a home.

Crews broke ground on the morning of October 3rd, 2019. The personal care home today is a 60-bed facility. Once the project is complete, it will have 143 brand new suites.

David Driedger is Chief Executive Officer for HavenGroup. He says they have reached an exciting phase of construction where they are now starting to add accessories and equipment, such as appliances. Driedger says the beds are arriving next week and they are anticipating a large amount of furniture to show up in January.

"It's just a whole bunch of details that are coming into place, just like you would see in a smaller home," says Driedger. "All of a sudden you are adding a whole bunch of stuff and you are starting to see the picture come into focus."

Driedger says his understanding is that the completed building will be turned over to HavenGroup in March. From there, they will need to ensure the facility is ready for residents to move into. Driedger says that means making sure it meets Manitoba long term care standards. They will need to ensure the air quality is good, that all systems work together and that residents and their families are prepared for the move.

According to Driedger, the move should happen in spring. He notes relocating their residents that currently live at Rest Haven and Cedarwood Supportive Housing should be done relatively quickly. There are currently 42 residents in the personal care home. After that, they will work with Southern Health and take a look at the panel waitlist. He notes they will have the capacity to admit 101 new residents. Some of these residents will come from their own homes, others will come from local hospitals or even other personal care homes.

"We expect that most if not all of the personal care home waitlist will be addressed for this area, over this next coming year," he says.

The expansion project is not progressing as quickly as had been expected. Driedger says initially they had hoped to open the new facility in late 2021. He says there are multiple reasons for the delay. Some of those reasons can be attributed to the pandemic; there have also been delays because of the supply chain.

"In some ways (it's) disappointing but at the same time we realize that because of the amount of work that's required, we have more prep time, so that's good as well," he says.

One of the big tasks staring at them yet is the process of hiring the necessary staff for the expanded space. Driedger says in total they need about 150 extra employees and so far have hired 10. However, he notes they do not all need to be in place for March 1st. Driedger says there will be a very focused hiring drive, probably from February to April. He notes this will be done in waves, with probably 40 to 60 employees needed in round one.

"We have a very unique building design, very unique philosophy of care here and we believe that people will be fulfilled working here as employees," shares Driedger. "So we want to be a provider of choice and provide excellence in care."

Driedger says once the expansion is complete, they will focus on finishing the renovations to the existing building.