The grand opening of MacGregor's Victoria Place - a community-based and community-supported assisted living facility -- took place today. General manager Myrna Miles outlines the services the facility offers.

Myrna Miles"The services that we have committed to providing these residents are food for the first part -- a lunch and a dinner seven days a week. And then we do laundry for them. And we do light housekeeping, and a visit a little but while we're there, too. In terms of activities, we would like them to drive that. What are they interested in doing?"

Board member and co-chair of the project Martin Unrau shares what it feels like to finally see the day arrive.

"It's great, and it's been a long time coming. We've had about 6 years of planning to see if this was a viable project. And then, of course, decided it was. We moved forward with many different aspects of putting this project together including fundraising from individuals across the municipality and beyond. Finally, we got to the point where we decided we would build a building, get our architect in place, and of course our contractors, and see people move in. We've got only three rooms available that'll hopefully be filled within a month. Then, of course, the project will be finished as soon as the building is full. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the many different people and organizations that played a part in getting this building put together."

Martin UnrauHe adds, "It's a true testament of communities working together, and an example of other communities to ensure that when we work together we get things done. Really it's not about one person or one organization. It's about the whole community pulling together. That really is the positive note on this building. The many people working together."

MLA for Agassiz and Minister of Indigenous and Municipal Relations Eileen Clarke also presented at the opening. She shares her thoughts.

Eileen Clarke "I'm very excited about it. I've known about this project I guess since its inception, because as an individual my husband and I own a business in this community, too. And we have family that lives here. I actually first got involved when I was vice president of the AMM and sitting on a housing roundtable for two years. There was an application at that time from this group in MacGregor that was working on this project and it was not at the top of the list which kind of concerned me. Five projects were funded one particular year, and they were all city locations. And being a rural director and a rural person, that kind of upset me because there' s a real need in the rural areas. People want to age in their communities and this was a community that worked hard and put the financial contributions behind their actions. They needed to be acknowledged and recognized for what they did. They deserved so much to get funding for this project although they weren't originally. The housing minister at the time took my comments seriously and within government, they did find a nice sum of money for this project which probably they really needed to get going. It wasn't long after that the shovels were in the ground. It's a small part of this project, but I'm really excited because there are so many communities that want a Victoria Place in their community, and it just doesn't happen without the people-commitment, and financial contributions. The government will try to help out in the money, but it has to come from the community. And that's one thing MacGregor's known for... its people and their willingness to do what has to be done. That's pretty exciting."

Eileen Clarke presents Certificate Commemorating Opening

Dan SawatzkyChair of the Normac Community Assisted Living Initiative, and for Victoria Place, Dan Sawatsky, says, "It's been a lot of work and very relieved to see it finally open and in place and serving its purpose. I appreciate those who've donated -- numerous people. This truly is a community effort and would not have happened with the support of the whole area. That's why it's here. It's for the community. So, I'm glad to see the ceremony and the support from the levels of government which is a crucial part of making it work."

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