GORE BAY—Gore Bay town council has released the due diligence condition in an agreement to accept the donation of the Manitoulin Lodge Nursing Home property from Jarlette Health Services effective July 1, 2025. At that time, Gore Bay will lease the facility to the new operator, St. Joseph’s Health Care, until a new building is constructed.
“As council is aware, we signed an agreement with Jarlette to help facilitate and develop the new nursing home building and take on ownership of the current building,” Gore Bay Mayor Ron Lane explained at a council meeting last week. “In the agreement there was a condition that needed to be satisfied.” The due diligence conditions conducted included an internal inspection by the town of the building. A full report was carried out by a third party and insurance is available for the property.
Mayor Lane said the internal inspection of the building revealed no major concerns. “The unknowns with the mechanical system is what it is, mechanical systems can fail in any building. We are willing to accept the risk. We satisfied ourselves and had the roof inspection carried out. And instead of putting the insurance through our blanket policy we connected with Jarlette to obtain insurance.”
In a report to council from Town Manager Harry Schlange it explained in part, in a nutshell there are risks in the town assuming a 100-year-old building which was identified in the roof report and by the inspection. There are no major structural concerns with the building but there are unknowns with the mechanical system.
“A sprinkler system is going to be installed in the building,” said Mr. Schlange, who noted that Jarlette Health Services has sourced a contractor to install this system. This is required, to be in compliance with the Ministry of Long-Term Care and must be operational by December 31, 2024. The insurance company has agreed to insure the property and the building as long as this work is included.
“The installation of the sprinklers in the lodge has to be completed by December 31. A bid was accepted, and they will be on site this month,” said Mayor Lane. The MOH provided supplementary funding for this, and the town has partnered with Jarlette (the latter which obtained a grant for a portion of the costs to contribute to this) and we have the funds in our budget.
“All of this is very good news, the current nursing home has to keep operating for another two or three years while the new building is constructed,” said Mayor Lane. “We’re moving in the right direction.”
