Posts Tagged ‘Winnipeg’

Another Bad Rap for Seniors

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

It’s taken me a while to catch up on my newspapers after spending a wonderful week in New York recently. I was taken aback by a Facts & Argument piece in the September 1st issue of the Globe and Mail. Facts & Argument is written by Globe readers, in this case a woman living in Toronto whose mother moved into and out of a “swanky” retirement residence in April. Its location is not specified in the article but it might be BC. I suggest that for two reasons—one is that the mum lived in a condo by the sea before moving into the retirement residence (actually the tense should be present not past because she moved right back into it before the condo could be sold), and the other is that the family grew up in Winnipeg.  I don’t know the actual numbers but I am sure ex-Winnipeggers living in BC outnumber ex-Winnipeggers living on the east coast by several orders of magnitude.

The article focused on the truly horrible food the family ate while growing up—it was appalling, heavy on the TV dinners, KFC, spam spam and more spam, and the delicacy known as “tuna goo”—canned tuna, frozen peas, and cream of mushroom soup.

And yet in spite of a gastronomic history like this, the mother moved out of her swanky residence after three weeks because the food was “inedible–cold and tasteless”.

There are three main messages to take from this article. One is that it is truly unfortunate for the industry when stories like this appear—they reinforce everyone’ s suspicions about retirement homes, suspicions that are usually baseless. The second is that the food in this case may have been a red herring, to keep the food theme going. Maybe the mum was simply not prepared to move. And the third message is that if the food really WAS inedible, that suggests operational stupidity of the very highest order.

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What’s new in Winnipeg

Monday, April 26th, 2010

I spent a few days in the warm sunshine in Winnipeg last week and toured several supportive housing projects while there.  If I were writing this in Manitoba I would say I had toured several assisted living projects, because the terminology is reversed in our two provinces. Manitobans describe projects that provide hospitality services and personal care as supportive housing; projects that provide only hospitality services are called assisted living.

One project in particular caught my attention—The Canoe Club, adjacent to what used to be a very popular recreational facility in Winnipeg years ago. The golf course is still there, but little else remains of the club’s former glory.

The Canoe Club is a 102 unit project, owned and operated by the Caleb Group. The Caleb Group, which is headquartered in Saskatoon, owns 12 projects across Canada and is busily developing others. Two of their projects are located in Winnipeg—Cathedrale Manor in St Boniface and The Canoe Club, in St Vital.

As all faithful readers of this blog know, I have toured a LOT of seniors’ housing projects all over North America but I was very impressed with The Canoe Club. It is quite beautiful—no other word will do. Interestingly, people can buy or rent any unit in the building, although the Caleb Group intends to retain ownership of a majority of the units, which will be offered on a rental basis. This is a smart move for the Caleb Group and for all The Canoe Club residents, owners and renters alike.

More on The Canoe Club in future posts.

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