The New Father Lacombe Care Centre
When Care Becomes More Than A Family Can Provide, We Are Here
A stroke. A life-changing medical injury. The progression of dementia or disease. Sometimes the need for continuing care develops gradually. Sometimes everything changes in a single day.
Government funding and organizational financing alone will not cover the full cost of building the new centre and creating the spaces residents, families and care teams need.
What the New Centre Will Offer
Improving Quality of Life
Spaces will be bright, airy, safe, welcoming, connected to nature, and scaled so that everyone can feel at home. With access to culturally appropriate services and a variety of social activities. The new Father Lacombe Care Centre will not only preserve 114 long term care beds within the continuing care system, it will also add 30 new care beds to the Calgary region.
Creating Connections
Staff will care for small and consistent groups of residents in a family setting, getting to know each other and developing meaningful relationships.
Options for Couples
Each floor has three adjoining rooms, offering the opportunity for couples to stay together.
Providing a Comfortable and Safe Environment
The facility will allow for the safe movement of residents by incorporating technology seamlessly and without an institutional look and feel.
Meeting Specialized Needs
The new Father Lacombe Care Centre will utilize universal design principles (barrier-free and accessible). Additionally it will meet special needs of residents with requirements related to:
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- Bariatrics: Eight rooms will be designated bariatric rooms. These rooms will be equipped with specialized furniture and equipment to ensure the comfort and safety of bariatric residents.
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- Memory Care: Forty-eight rooms will be secure and dedicated to memory care, with the option to add more. The design of the memory care floor utilizes special principles allowing for a calming, home-like, familial setting with quiet, organic flow; helping to ensure dementia residents don’t get ‘lost’.
Involving Families
There wil be iIncreasing opportunities for families to visit with a café, main outdoor garden, and family gathering spaces on each floor. Families will have the comfort of knowing their loved ones are in a space that truly feels like home and have increasing opportunities to participate in care decisions.
The new Father Lacombe Care Centre will be a modern, purpose-built home for people requiring long-term, complex, and memory care. It will provide care teams with the spaces, technology, and resources they need. Most importantly, it will create a place where every life is recognized as sacred and residents are supported through every stage of their journey. The redevelopment will be built opposite the current FLCC, which will be repurposed into dormitories for St Mary’s University.
That is why Father Lacombe Care Foundation is raising $16 million. Community support will help turn plans and renderings into welcoming and functional spaces.
Why Redevelopment is Needed
The Growing Need for Continuing Care
Alberta’s population is aging, and more people are living with dementia, complex medical conditions and changing mobility needs.
Meeting this growing need requires a new kind of care environment, designed around the realities residents, families, and care teams face today.
Key Statistics:
- The Alzheimer Society estimates that more than 414 people in Canada develop dementia each day, equivalent to more than 17 people every hour. [alzheimer.ca]
- Women are disproportionately affected with approximately 61.8% of Canadians living with dementia being women. [alzheimer.ca]
- About 3 % of all people living with dementia in Canada are younger than 65. [canada.ca]
- The prevalence of dementia more that doubles every 5 years for Canadians age 65 and older. [Canadian Institute For Health Information]
The People Behind the Need, and the Families Who Love Them
When Caring Becomes A Crisis
Imagine chasing your husband down a snow-covered street in the middle of the night.
His dementia has progressed, and he has left home alone. When you finally bring him back, he no longer recognizes you and locks you outside. He needs specialized care, secure surroundings and compassionate support.
Different Circumstances. The Same Need.
Families do everything they can. They lose sleep, step away from work and put their own health and responsibilities aside.
By supporting our $16 million campaign, you are helping create a place where residents can receive the specialized care they need and families can return to sharing love, connection and companionship.
When a Loving Daughter is Pulled in Every Direction
After her mother experiences a stroke, a daughter moves in to provide care. At the same time, she has a full-time job and two children who still need her.
Every day becomes a series of medications, appointments and safety concerns. Providing 24/7 care has become unsustainable.
With appropriate care in place, she can stop managing every medical need and return to spending time with her mother as a daughter.
Impact on the Care System and Community
St. Mary's University
The current Father Lacombe Care Centre building will be leased to St. Mary's University through a long-term agreement, allowing the University to repurpose it into dormitories. This will allow them to increase their student body by up to 70%. We are grateful that this will mean Father Lacombe's legacy of community support, education, and Catholic values will continue to be upheld on this historic site.
Reducing Pressure On The Local Care System
The senior’s population in Alberta is growing faster than any other age group, and every day there are 1,500 people in Alberta lying in hospital waiting for a bed in a care home. In the last five years, 23,800 patients have remained in hospital beyond medical necessity, contributing to emergency room gridlock and delayed surgeries.
Transitioning Alternative Level of Care patients to supportive living or long-term care would alleviate pressure on the acute care system.
As the seniors’ population increases, so will the role played by the community-based seniors-serving homes like Father Lacombe Care Centre.
Economic Impact During and After Development
- 800 jobs will be created during the construction of the new care centre
- There will be a $114.8 Million GDP impact
- 18 New Permanent Jobs will be created post completion
The New Chapel
Where Life Retains its Dignity, Meaning and Worth Until a Natural Death.
At the center of the new Father Lacombe Care Centre, the chapel will serve people of all faiths and provide an easily accessible, welcoming space for residents, staff, and families.
Having a dedicated Chapel provides that physical space to sit, meditate, reflect and pray. Our goal is to see Spiritual Care integrated with good physical, emotional and psychological care that is already present, to achieve sanctity of life in all its stages, even its final ones.
Donors to the chapel Campaign will be honoured on a special donor wall. Gifts of $10K and over may be pledged over five years.
” The new Father Lacombe Care Centre is envisioned as a true community of care and belonging for those most vulnerable due to age, illness, or particular conditions. It will honour the dignity of every person, offer Christian accompaniment, and provide a genuine sense of home. It continuously affirms that compassionate care remains at the heart of our shared life.
I invite the Catholic and philanthropic community to see in this project an opportunity to leave a living legacy. Your generosity will strengthen a culture rooted in the gift of life from God, which is the source of the inherent dignity of every human person. “
– Bishop William T. McGrattan, Honourary Patron
Project Timing & Funding
Timeline
The development permit was submitted to The City of Calgary in December 2024, and has been appproved. We will be breaking ground starting in the fall of 2026, with our doors opening in the fall of 2028.
Funding
With funding support from Alberta Health, we are excited to bring this vision for the new Father Lacombe Care Centre to life. The philanthropic community will continue to be a partner in providing this important service for all residents, their families, and the community at large
Funding for the new Father Lacombe Care Centre is anchored in support from Sisters of Providence as owners of the Father Lacombe Care Society (land and cash from reserves) and the Government of Alberta. Building on successful fundraising campaigns for Providence Care Centre, Father Lacombe Care Foundation has committed to raising $16M.
Life Inside The New Centre
A care centre is more than a place to receive medical support. It is where someone remembers how a resident takes their coffee. Where their favourite music can fill the room. Where a familiar story can be told more than once without impatience. Where families can celebrate birthdays, share meals, or simply sit together without every moment being consumed by caregiving duties.
At Father Lacombe Care Society, residents are not defined by a diagnosis. They are people with histories, personalities, faith, humour, preferences and important relationships. This is the kind of home your support will help us build. Whether you make a one-time donation, pledge a gift over five years or explore a transformational giving opportunity, your support will help bring the new Father Lacombe Care Centre to life.
Help us raise $16 million and build the place someone you love may one day need.