Housing Development

Province and federal ministers celebrate affordable housing construction

CAPTION: Provincial Minister of Community Services and Seniors Janice Sherry, left, holds up a blue print of the affordable housing complex for seniors with federal Minister of State Alice Wong at the construction site in Summerside Thursday afternoon. Photo Ryan Quigley / Journal Pioneer

Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

SUMMERSIDE- Federal and Provincial Ministers were in Summerside to celebrate the beginning of construction for the first publicly built housing for seniors in almost twenty years.

Federal Minister of State Alice Wong and Provincial Minister of Community Services, Seniors and Labour were in attendance for the ceremony, both delivering speeches about the project.

The affordable housing, located by the Prince County Hospital on Roy Boates Avenue will have 34-units including five two bedroom apartments and eight barrier free apartments for those disable to be able to navigate comfortably.

The project, which was announced in November, will cost about $8.45 million and is receiving equal funding from both the provincial and federal governments.

The last house built with public money for seniors was in 1993. The new building will increase Summerside’s publicly owned and operated units to 175.

Sherry was excited to see the project underway.

“This is pretty exciting for our seniors in the Summerside area,” said Sherry. “There’s a lot of interest from seniors in our area looking for affordable housing, so it is wonderful.”

Sherry said the federal and provincial governments continue to work together to be able to provide projects to help area seniors.

“We do realize that the number of seniors will continue to grow. In Prince Edward Island right now we have the largest and fastest growing seniors per capita in the country, so we will be relying on keeping those relationships strong with our federal counterparts.”

Sherry said the building is fairly monumental being the first of its kind in P.E.I. since ’93.

“I think it’s a good example of how communication works between all levels of government and I think it’s reflective of the relationships that are important to move projects such as this forward in our community.”