Skip to content

OUR VIEW: Don't let Broadacres go to waste

It seems as if Rod Gustafson wasn’t the only one hoping that his Broadacres Care Facility would be the successful proponent for Interior Health’s call for RFPs (request for proposals) last December.

It seems as if Rod Gustafson wasn’t the only one hoping that his Broadacres Care Facility would be the successful proponent for Interior Health’s call for RFPs (request for proposals) last December.

A large mass of people packed the Grand Forks and District Public Library last week, expressing their dissatisfaction with Interior Health (IH) passing on Gustafson’s facility.

While IH wouldn’t go into specifics with the Grand Forks Gazette on why Broadacres wasn’t selected during the RFP process for the 40 residential care beds in Grand Forks – Golden Life Management was awarded the contract – it did say that the facility on Carson Road wasn’t selected for temporary beds because it didn’t offer IH’s standard service.

People in the area will question why Broadacres was overlooked but Golden Life Management does have a good resume with residential care villages dotting the province and IH and it are familiar with one another.

However, while Gustafson’s facility will not be funded for the 40 residential beds or the temporary ones, it doesn’t mean that it should be torn down or abandoned – Interior Health would be wise to look at using it in some other health care capacity.

Forget for a moment that Gustafson has invested a lot of money into Broadacres.

The care facility, as mentioned in an editorial last week, is state-of-the-art; it has bathing units for those with mobility issues and those are only some of its special features – it uses geothermal energy system as well.

Unlike Golden Life Management’s Silver Kettle Village, which is estimated to open two summers from now, Broadacres is ready for operation.

Gustafson says that he wants to maintain dialogue with IH and says that Broadacres could be used for a dementia unit and seeing as the facility is ready to go, why let it go to waste?

The facility is situated in a tranquil, rural area and Gustafson has been quoted as saying he would even be content to lease it to IH and step back.

One of the other options for Broadacres if it isn’t used as a health care facility is a correctional institute and if that were to happen, people in Grand Forks may be arranging for another meeting at the library for an entirely different reason.

 

- The Grand Forks Gazette