Monthly Bulletin
December 2024
NEWS, INITIATIVES, AND EVENTS
Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you; we wish you all the very
best in 2025!
2025 BVRH Board of Directors
The Board underwent some change at our AGM last month. Although
the members remain the same, the Chairperson and Vice Chairperson
roles were swapped.
Dental Hygienist Onsite
Kristy Gerber and her team from My Mobile Dental Hygienist are now
offering mobile services to our Bow River Lodge and Bow River
Homes clients at our Canmore Campus. Please contact them at (403)
988-1691 or by email at info@mmdh.ca for more information.
Continuing Care Wing Occupancy
The first floor continues to fill slowly through a measured, responsible
pace. As of writing 40% of the spaces are open and we anticipate full
occupancy in 2025. We, along with our partners SE Health have proven
that employee housing is key to maintaining the staff levels required to
operate the care facility; BVRH is working to increase the number of
double-occupancy employee housing spaces from four to eight in 2025.
2024 Bow Valley Region Housing Needs Assessment
The assessment, which we have recently completed, provides a
comprehensive evaluation of current and future housing needs in the
region. The findings highlight significant gaps in both market and
non market housing and these challenges are exacerbated by rising housing
costs outpacing income growth, underscoring the urgency for targeted
solutions to address affordability and accessibility across the housing
continuum. The assessment is available for use in advocating and
planning for housing solutions in the Bow Valley Region.
2025 Budget Development
The 2025 Budget Development process is nearly complete.
• Supportive Living and Continuing Care clients can expect
inflationary increases of approximately 3% to lodge
accommodation and continuing care accommodation fees.
• Our combined 2025 operating budgets are expected to total
approximately $10.5 million, $9.7 million of which serves our
Supportive Living and Continuing Care clients in Banff and
Canmore.
PROGRAM OCCUPANCY RATES
Bow River Lodge – SL 96%
Bow River Lodge – CCHTB 70%
Cascade House 71%
Bow River Homes 100%
Mount Edith House 100%
Community Housing 100%
Rent Supplement 100%
SPECIAL PROJECTS
This is Home (Phase 3+)
Considering ongoing, stubborn uncertainty in the interest rate markets,
rising construction costs and challenges aligning GOA and CMHC
funding, we may submit our project proposal to Alberta Seniors,
Community, and Social Supports shortly as the submission window has
recently opened. First, we will speak with senior staff from the Ministry
to explore the unique challenges we face in the Bow Valley Region and
their impact on our project proposal. Our proposal will be reinforced
with an enhanced business case in development in collaboration with a
broad-scale construction and design firm, who are lending us their
expertise on a voluntary basis.
The province received approximately $500 million in funding requests
in 2023 for which they had $80 million to spend, this time they have
$150 million to fund projects.
These projects, if approved, will refresh much of our Community and
Seniors’ Independent Housing stock while adding different types and
affordability levels of housing to the region in Canmore and perhaps
elsewhere.
RESOURCES
• If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911.
• For 24/7 nurse advice and general health information for Albertans
information on diseases, treatments, staying well, and healthcare services
dial 811.
• For 24/7 community program & service information, including
affordability programming in the Bow Valley dial 211.
• If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 988.
ABOUT BOW VALLEY REGIONAL HOUSING
Bow Valley Regional Housing (BVRH) is a Housing Management
Body (HMB) serving the Government of Alberta and the Bow
Valley Region. HMB operational funding sources vary. Tenants pay
accommodation fees. Those fees are subject to affordability limits,
which prevent them from fully covering the costs of operations.
Provincial grants and municipal ratepayer requisitions subsidize
seniors lodge deficits, while the province also subsidizes deficits in
independent seniors and community housing.
As the HMB for the Bow Valley region, BVRH is responsible for
social housing, as well as affordable supportive living
accommodation for seniors throughout Kananaskis Country, the
Bow Corridor, the MD of Bighorn, and all of Banff National Park,
an area covering about 13,500 square kilometers.
All told, we currently house, or help to house approximately 500
residents of the Bow Valley in eight permanent housing projects
encompassing 33 separate buildings.
