Long-term care home boost to economy as well as health, says Corner Brook mayor

A new long-term care centre will be a much needed shot in the arm for the Corner Brook economy, and a chance to start building a plan to attract more young people to the city, says Mayor Jim Parsons.

Let's look at how we are going to attract young families.- Jim Parsons

On Friday, government released details aboutthe new long-term care, including plans to fund its construction through a public-private partnership.

Construction of thefacility, set to open in 2020, will create 380 person years of employment and 200 permanent public service jobs to staff the centre.

Boost in morale

Parsons saida new long-term care building is long overdue for the west coast, and comes at a very welcome time for Corner Brook, which is dealing with an aging population and serious demographic challenges.

"This will be a big boost in morale for us from a health-care perspective but also from an economic development perspective," he told the Corner Brook Morning Show.

"You're talking about services related to the construction directly, but you're also talking about accommodations, restaurants, and all these sort of ancillary services that you would expect when you're putting a workforce into our city."

New to the mayor's chair, Parsons says the long-term care centre is the perfectopportunity to start planning for the city's future.

He said that includes making sure the city has a sound economic development plan and puttingthe proper infrastructure and services in place so that new workers will want to settle down in the city.

"Let's look at how we are going to attract young families, possibly immigrants, to these new jobs to help us a bit starting our plan to fixsome of our demographic woes," he said.

"If we want to focus on young families we need to make sure we have facilities that will attract young families. We have tomake sure our tax rates and structure is right, we have to make sure we have affordable housing, we have to have the right recreational facilities."