Item - 2021.RA23.1

The Board of Directors of CreateTO:

1.  Endorsed the proposal to build a new Senior Services and Long-Term Care facility on the City owned property located at 4610 Finch Avenue East, as identified in Attachment A to the report (June 22, 2021) from the Vice President, Client Relationship Management, CreateTO.

2.  Directed the Interim Chief Executive Officer, CreateTO, in consultation with the General Manager, Senior Services and Long-Term Care, Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, and the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management to explore the feasibility to potentially locate a new Senior Services and Long-Term Care facility at the City owned property at the Don Valley Parkway and York Mills Road, as outlined in Attachment B to the report (June 22, 2021) from the Vice President, Client Relationship Management, CreateTO.

3.  Directed the Interim Chief Executive Officer, CreateTO, in consultation with the General Manager, Senior Services and Long-Term Care, Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, and the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management to explore opportunities to design any new Seniors Services and Long-Term Care facilities to allow as much flexibility to the future built form acknowledging the urban context of building in Toronto.

4.  Directed the Interim Chief Executive Officer, CreateTO, in consultation with the General Manager, Senior Services and Long-Term Care, Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, and the Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management to identify additional publicly owned property that could be leveraged to maximize the delivery of City-operated long-term care beds in addition to other city building opportunities, and report back to a future CreateTO Board meeting with a proposed plan.

5.  Directed the Interim Chief Executive Officer, CreateTO, in consultation with the General Manager, Senior Services and Long-Term Care, Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, and the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat to evaluate the potential to repurpose any of the five long-term care homes identified for replacement to meet other affordable and supportive housing objectives and report back to the Board of CreateTO with the results.

6.  Directed the Interim Chief Executive Officer, CreateTO in consultation with the General Manager, Senior Services and Long-Term Care to work with Environment and Energy Division on identifying grants, partnerships, and business models for TransformTO implementation opportunities for both mitigation and improved resilience, such as, opportunities for renewable energy, energy storage, electric vehicle charging, and net-zero emissions buildings as a part of this project.

7.  Directed the Interim Chief Executive Officer, CreateTO in consultation with the General Manager, Senior Services and Long-Term Care, Executive Director, Corporate Real Estate Management to work with the Chief Executive Officer, Toronto Lands Corporation to identify any properties owned by the Toronto District School Board that may be suitable for redevelopment to include a new long-term care facility.

The Lead, Client Relationship Management, CreateTO gave a presentation on Advancing Opportunities for the Delivery of City Operated Long-Term Care Beds.

The purpose of this report is to update the Board of Directors of CreateTO (the “Board”) on the on-going collaboration between CreateTO and Senior Services and Long-Term Care Division (“SSLTC”) to identify opportunities that enable the timely delivery of City operated long-term care beds. 

The Ministry of Long-Term Care (“MOLTC”) has identified the mandatory redevelopment of Class “B” and “C” long-term care homes in order to bring these facilities into conformance with the design standards issued by the Ministry of Long-Term Care (MOLTC) to improve the physical and service needs of residents.  To date, there are about 15,200 long-term care beds operated out of 84 facilities within Toronto. Of these totals approximately 7,600, or 50 percent, have been identified by the Ministry of Long-Term Care as requiring redevelopment. 

Five of the City's directly operated ten long-term care homes (1,232 beds out of 2,641 beds) require redevelopment to meet current design standards. As part of these redevelopment initiatives and as a result of Council direction, the City will also be looking for opportunities to increase the inventory of long-term care beds by an additional 978 beds. SSLTC estimates that the capital cost to redevelop the City’s five existing long-term care facilities including the cost of adding the 978 beds will be approximately $820 million (excluding the George Street Revitalization).

The COVID-19 pandemic has had severe impacts on the long-term care home system and its senior population, shedding a light on the continuing need to provide quality resident care in addition to mitigating the growing demand for additional long-term care beds across the province. The report put forward by Toronto’s Office of Recovery and Rebuild in October 2020 also outlined a number of recommendations (specifically recs #31 and #33) highlighting the need to explore better utilization of City-owned land  to realize previously unavailable opportunities for the delivery of housing, including the development of  long-term care facilities.

Investing in Capital Renewal is an exciting opportunity to address some of the issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and support those most vulnerable in our community. This includes:

-   An opportunity to improve the design and safety of long-term care facilities, including new technological and physical changes that will allow a better response to future pandemics;

-   Improved levels of service by adding additional beds to the system;

-   Supporting high quality specialized resident-focused care;

-   Serving vulnerable individuals and ensuring residents continue to receive excellent care and services; as well as

-   Opportunities to respond to emerging community needs through the delivery of co-located programs such as child care, paramedic services, etc.

Capital renewal is also the perfect opportunity to build zero emissions facilities now, ahead of the 2030 requirement, consistent with Council direction including TransformTO and the Toronto Green Standard and to take advantage of future government grants.

To date, CreateTO, working with Senior Services and Long-Term Care (SSLTC), City Real Estate Management (CREM) and City Planning, has identified a site at 4610 Finch Avenue East as a suitable location for a long-term care facility.  Additionally, a site located at the northwest corner of the Don Valley Parkway and York Mills Road may also be a potentially suitable location that will require further due-diligence.  Those two sites, combined with the George Street Revitalization project and the redevelopment of Senior Services and Long-Term Care's (SLTCC’s) existing Castleview Wychwood Towers proper ty (located at 351 Christie St.), will enable SSLTC to proceed with the redevelopment of approximately 1654 beds. This will result in the addition of 572 new beds to the system. 

Providing additional sites for the redevelopment of existing long-term care facilities allows for the accelerated delivery of long-term care beds along with a break in dependencies between projects, supporting the timely delivery of Senior Services and Long-Term Care's (SSLTC’s) Capital Renewal Plan.  Eliminating the need to rebuild on the same site also allows existing long-term care homes to remain operational, minimizing resident disruption, as well as providing a unique opportunity to extend building life by converting long-term care facilities to support the City’s affordable and supportive housing objectives.