Manitoulin Island continues to be a unique and special place and, looking to the near future, we’ll be a place of envy with not only three Island nursing homes/long-term stay facilities, but two of these are to be rebuilt to modern specifications in the next two years.
Not only that, but each of the facilities will be of the “not-for-profit” kind and will so reflect one of the mantras that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, that all long-stay facilities, ideally, should be non-profit-making enterprises.
During 2023, Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory made it official that their community-owned nursing home would be replaced by a 98-bed facility and, in fact, the clearing and preparation of the new site in Wikwemikong village (on the whimsically named Sesame Street) began last week. People will be uniquely able to say that “Grandma and/or Grandpa live on Sesame Street!”
Similarly, in Gore Bay, the Manitoulin Lodge, in service since 1977, will be replaced by a brand-new 64-bed home to be built on an attractive property high above the bay (on Armstrong Road, land which was donated by a generous private citizen).
This new facility will be the undertaking of the St. Joseph’s Health Centre that has had well over a century’s experience in community health and currently operates two similar facilities in Sudbury as well as a rehabilitation centre there and, prior to the expansion of Health Sciences North, owned and operated the Sudbury General Hospital.
The St. Joseph’s Health Centre board of directors recently blessed the Gore Bay build and so the Western Manitoulin community is well on its way to sporting a new not-for-profit facility within a couple of years.
The third, and original, long-term care home is the Manitoulin Centennial Manor in Little Current, owned jointly by all Manitoulin Island municipalities and built in Canada’s centennial year, 1967, hence its name.
It’s also a 64-bed unit and, 20 years ago, went through a major upgrade where a new wing was added in order to maintain the number of beds but without multiple-bed wards so that every room has only one or two beds, an advantage that was underscored during the COVID-19 pandemic when the provincial government, in the interest of minimizing the spread of the virus in long-stay homes, mandated that any homes with wards could only house up to two people in these rooms, leading to a drop in capacity in many nursing homes, including the Manitoulin Lodge in Gore Bay.
In Wiikwemkoong, the nursing home, built by the community in 1972, houses 59 residents, all in single or double rooms.
But a modern and larger building has been needed and sought for some time and local fundraising even began, on a hopeful note, more than a year before the announcement was made that the community would be building a new facility.
In Gore Bay, the current owners of Manitoulin Lodge, Jarlett Health Services, had agreed to deed the existing facility to local municipal ownership once a new long-term stay home was built by another organization so when the St. Joseph’s Health Centre’s new home is complete and residents of the Manitoulin Lodge have moved in, the town will have the unique opportunity to use the old space for any number of health-related activities that could include an expanded medical centre, possibly an assisted-living facility or even a local in-patient rehabilitation centre.
At Wiikwemkoong, the ongoing use of the current 52-year-old nursing home is undecided but, as in Gore Bay, there will be a variety of possibilities there as well.
With an aging population, these announcements this year have been very good news to Manitoulin residents and have made us somewhat the envy of the region.
On the health care front, kudos must also go to the management of the Manitoulin Health Centre who have managed to maintain 24-hour emergency services at both the hospital’s Little Current and Mindemoya sites.
Other rural regions of Northern and southern Ontario have not fared nearly as well with limited “9 to 5” emergency services, some only on weekdays, becoming far too common in certain small rural hospitals.
This is an area of major concern to these communities so we must consider ourselves on Manitoulin truly blessed.
So Manitoulin remains a healthy place to live, and to age in. Another testament to this is the 12 units of seniors’ apartments the District Services Board completed in Little Current this fall on land provided to them by the municipality.
But along the way, there is also school, and at Manitoulin Secondary School, the Manitoulin Metal Robotics Team acquitted the Island proud by managing successive wins in competitions with other Ontario schools that eventually landed them in the international robotics world championships in Houston, Texas, where the team won the prestigious First Impact Award, guaranteeing them a berth in the 2024 event, also scheduled for Houston. What a win!
In fact, the robotics squad at Wikwemikong High School was the first on Manitoulin and mentored the first MSS team, so the endeavour for a growing number of young people at the secondary school level is one that can and will open doors for them as they plan for their futures.
Quite a year.
As usual at this time and in this space, we would like to thank and acknowledge the people who help us bring you a timely and useful newspaper each week.
We would like to acknowledge the very useful advice on almost any local historical matter of the late Alexander (Sandy) McGillivray who was generous with his knowledge and suggestions. He will be missed, as will Bill Caesar, retired teacher, who in his retirement became an expert in all manner of Manitoulin traditions, penning small books in the process, just as Sandy published his large tome, The Little Current Story, which deals as much with all of Manitoulin history as well as Little Current’s.
A new monthly contribution to The Expositor is Dorah L. Williams, whose “Mystical Manitoulin” details Island folks’ real-life experiences with the supernatural, or in any case, some very unusual but true events. Thanks for finding us, Dorah.
Thank you once again to Petra Wall for her monthly “Now and Then” columns where we learn about the interesting lives of local people “of a certain age.”
Thank you, similarly once again, to Heather Marshall for introducing us each month to someone who is “New-ish to Manitoulin” and for putting together an interesting party this fall where the invited guests were people she’d profiled. What an ecletic gathering!
On the sporting fields and on the ice, thank you to André Leblanc for his ‘Ice Chips and Canoe Quips’ where he keeps us posted on the achievements of local individuals and teams. Thanks, André.
We have “Friends and Neighbours” in our paper! These are traditional rural news columnists (not so traditional in the case of Kagawong’s “Team Fergmijer” where one pun begets another and…). But a little more traditional in the cases of the excellent contributions by Karen Noble of Silver Water, Elaine Bradley of Meldrum Bay, Lillian Greenman of Barrie Island and Willie Munro from Gore Bay’s Millsite Apartments.
Thank you Clare Cline, as of now the only literary contributor to the paper with her monthly reviews from the stacks of Mindemoya and Providence Bay Public Libraries, over which she holds sway and about which she pens ‘Mindemoya Book Mice.’
Dr. Joe Shorthouse pleasantly surprises us with timely offerings that detail aspects of the natural world on Manitoulin. Thank you, Joe.
And thank you, Alexandra Wilson-Zegil, our MSS ‘Kids in the Hall’ reporter and also a member of the award-winning Manitoulin Metal Squad. Keep up the good work, Alexandra.
Rose Diebolt, busy on many community activities, has retired from her weekly “Rose’s Recipes” column but still provides a column when she has something special to share. Thanks, Rose.
Thank you to our myriad of Manitoulin postmasters/mistresses and the associated rural route contractors who get the paper into readers’ hands each week. Well done.
A word about accomplishments and changes at Northern Ontario’s oldest newspaper: Editor-in-chief Tom Sasvari joined an elite group in his hometown when he was named one of Gore Bay’s “Lifetime Achievers” and was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award this fall.
Veteran scribe Michael Erskine was this year acknowledged by News Media Canada and the Ontario Community Newspaper Association for toiling in the industry here for 25 years. His reward? A handshake, applause and a Silver Quill pin and plaque to mark this milestone.
Mike was also the winner of two national awards this year, placing first in competition with newspapers across and one-time staffers (Canada Circulation under 12,499 each week) for ‘Best National Editorial’ and ‘Best Feature Story.’
Veteran Expositor freelance reporter Gina Gasongi Simon won the ‘Best News Story’ award in the Ontario Community Newspapers Association’s ‘Better Newspaper Competition’ this year. This was a back-to-back yearly win within this important category for this paper and The Expositor has set an Ontario industry record by winning Best News Story in three of the past five years.
Former staffer and current freelancer Warren Schlote placed second in the “Education Writing” category.
We have some new staffers, too: Xoë Roy has taken on the mantle of the youthful production manager and Michelle Cunning is the assistant in that department. We bid a fond farewell to Dave Patterson this year after 13 years in the production manager’s chair, from where he also managed the paper’s award-winning websites (which he’d built) and also oversaw I.T. duties. Thanks a lot Dave. (Turns out he’s also a very talented woodworker!)
In customer service/sales, Robyn McGauley has taken on the important role of manager.
On behalf of all of us here at The Manitoulin Expositor, both veterans and newcomers at One Manitowaning Road, thank you to all of the individuals, organizations, businesses and readers who support this publication. Our mission, as always, is to provide Manitoulin with a useful news source, in print and online, that also assists consumers and jobseekers in making informed decisions.
To everyone, thank you for your support. Our staff collectively wishes you a happy Christmas and a good 2024.
Sincerely,
Alicia McCutcheon
Kerrene Tilson
Tom Sasvari
Michael Erskine
Marilyn Harasym
Debbie Bailey
Xoë Roy
Michelle Cunning
Robyn McGauley
Jacqueline St. Pierre
Linda Rutenburg
Jake McColeman
Hayley Noël
Rick and Julia McCutcheon
