Donald
Teuma-Castelletti
CAMPBELL’S BAY
Dec. 2, 2017
A retirement residence in Campbell’s Bay is almost officially a privately-owned building, after many years of renting the facilities from the Centre intégré de santé et des services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSSO).
Conducting a formal announcement at the annual wine and cheese Christmas party on Saturday, the president and directors of the Friends of St. Joseph Manor were excited to share with residents that the agreement had been sent off to the notaries.
“The papers are made, the ministry has to sign them and then they’re going to send them up here and we’ll be going to sign them at the notary hopefully before the end of the year,” said Denis Larivière, president of the Friends of St. Joseph’s Manor.

With this announcement, the board was happy to share that it would be more financially secure to expand their building and services.
“Now that the building is officially ours, there’s even talks of expanding, of course, because there is a great need throughout the county for rooms,” said Larivière. “The baby boomers are coming in and there’s going to be a real shortage [of rooms].”
Larivière explained that by owning the building inhouse, they can now use it as collateral for a mortgage in order to expand.
“We couldn’t before, because we did not own the building,” he said.
Before, the Manor had to seek other sources of money to conduct their business. Renovations and repairs to the building have amounted to around $850,000 since 1997, with loans coming from the SADC. Currently, the Manor is still working to pay back a loan of $530,000, with a fifth of that balance still owing.
A recent renovation included the installation of a sprinkler system, obligated by law to be done, and amounting to $270,000. Before this agreement was worked out with CISSSO, the board of directors would be sinking money into a project like this, unsure if the building would still be theirs in years to come.
“Now that the renovations are done and the building is in our name, it’s so much easier to say, well the money is going to stay in the Pontiac,” said Larivière. “Because at anytime, the ministry could have said, well we need that building back and we were kind of hanging by a thread.”
The Manor is currently home to 34 permanent residents, with beds for those spending time freshly out of the hospital available, too. The Friends of St. Joseph’s is meant to provide senior citizens with a clean and comfortable residence, where their families know that they’re provided for with all their needs met. Larivière was proud to share that it generally doesn’t take long for residents to refer to the Manor as their home, at an affordable price for their residents, as the organization is non-profit.
“Once [residents] are here … they call it home after a couple of weeks and they don’t want to leave,” said Larivière. “When you come at Christmas time … you take them home and they have their meal with the family, but not long after they say, ‘I want to go home,’ and this is home. When you’ve worked 22 years, like I have, at this and you hear that, that’s your pay.”