CHESTERMERE – The Chestermere Health Centre is one step closer to a reality, as the officially groundbreaking ceremony for the facility was held on March 29.
A group of around 70 people attended the event at the future site of the health centre, which is located at 288 Kinniburgh Blvd. in Chestermere.
The ceremony began at 10 a.m. with Akesh Aheer singing O Canada, and developer Bob Gaidhar of Prime Funds welcoming the crowd to the event.
There were a few speeches, including some words from Ted Morton, who thanked all the community volunteers for driving this project forward. He commented on how impressed he was by the dedicated people in Alberta who work to make their communities a better place to live.
Mayor Patricia Matthews also spoke, providing a brief history of the project and the process that brought everything together. She congratulated the committee on their hard work and dedication, saying that the health centre will be nothing but an asset to the community.
Following the speeches, the group walked to the site of construction and officially broke ground.
Health centre committee chair Karen Wourms said that it was a cool and windy day, but that they were happy to have drawn a good crowd for the event.
”It was a great feeling to see all the support of the community, Town of Chestermere, Alberta Health Services, the Primary Care Network, the developers and local health professionals, shown by their attendance at the event,” she said. “This facility will be a great addition to our community.”
Wourms said that once it is completed, the Chestermere Health Centre will be a place where more health care professionals can work locally. She said that it will offer more room to recruit family physicians and provide better accessibility to health services for residents and the surrounding community.
One of the tenants will be Alberta Health Services, which in the new facility will be able to centralize existing home care, public health and mental health services. They will do so by leasing 10,000 square feet of space within the 22,000 square foot facility.
Construction of the facility is set to begin this June. The completion date is uncertain as there will be more than one contractor involved, and because Alberta Health Services does their own tenant improvements once the building’s shell is complete.
For more information about the health centre, visit www.chestermerehealth.ca or find them on Facebook.
