P.E.I. nursing home provider Enhanced Living secures two of three contracts for new LTC homes

After a two-year tendering process, the province has announced the last recipient of government contracts for the construction of three new private nursing homes.

On Oct. 6 at Charlottetown’s Whisperwood residence, Premier Rob Lantz announced an 82-bed expansion to the existing nursing home facility. The expansion will be subsidized through a 30-year contract between the province and Whisperwood owner Enhanced Living.

This was the third announcement in recent months of public funding for construction of new private long-term care homes. Taken together, the three facilities will add 222 new long-term care beds to the health system once construction is completed. All three are expected to open in 2029.

In June, the Lantz government announced a 30-year agreement with the Mount Continuing Care Community for the construction of a new 80-bed long-term care home in Cornwall.

Then in August, the province announced another 30-year agreement with Enhanced Living for the construction of a new 60-bed long-term care home in Summerside.

With the Charlottetown announcement, this means Enhanced Living secured two of these three contracts.

In a speech at the Oct. 6 announcement, Lantz said the province’s shortage of long-term care beds has placed pressures on the province’s hospitals, where patients often face wait times because of a shortage of placements in long-term care homes.

“Every new bed helps support seniors and families while also relieving pressure elsewhere in the health-care system. It allows hospitals to focus on acute care and helps ensure that health-care services are available for Islanders when they need it the most,” Lantz said.

Joshua Simon, the chief financial officer at Enhanced Living, said he believes there are 100 people currently in hospital who are awaiting placement in a nursing home.

He noted that Enhanced Living is fully staffed, is unionized and does not use travel nurses.

“We want to keep people out of the hospital and where they truly can be provided with the best care,” Simon said.

The province has said it will be providing $3.5 million per year to Enhanced Living to support construction costs for the new Charlottetown facility.

Enhanced Living will also receive $2.5 million per year to build the new facility in Summerside while The Mount will receive $3.4 million per year to build the new facility in Cornwall.

Taken together, this will mean the province will be providing a $282 million commitment from taxpayers to the private operators of these three facilities, over a 30-year period.

Enhanced Living and The Mount both secured their contracts after a lengthy, competitive tendering process that began in 2024.

Simon said his company will still be putting in tens of millions of dollars of its own money to build the Charlottetown and Summerside homes. He said the company’s bid among the lowest submitted.

“Price was a huge factor,” Simon said.

On top of the $282 million, the province has said each facility will receive a yearly sum to “help offset accommodation costs for the residents” once the construction is complete.

Media statements from the province indicated these accommodation amounts would be an estimated $10.1 million per year to the new Charlottetown facility, $7.4 million per year to the new Summerside facility and $9.8 million for the new Cornwall facility.

However, a representative from the P.E.I. Premier’s Office clarified that these amounts were not included in the contracts awarded to Enhanced Living and The Mount.

These figures were estimates based on the per bed, per day subsidy provided to all long-term care residents who meet the income thresholds of P.E.I.’s existing long-term care subsidization program.

This would mean that the subsidies would be offered to qualifying residents in the new long-term care homes, which would likely be most residents, just the same as they currently are in other current private long-term care homes.

The Guardian has requested copies of the contracts the province has signed with Enhanced Living and The Mount. These were not provided as of deadline.

The CEO of Enhanced Living is Jason Lee. Lee has a lengthy record of work in the province’s long-term care sector. He also happens to be involved in the governing Progressive Conservative party. Public records show he has been a regular donor for several years.

Notably, Lee served as a member of the PC leadership convention committee, which organized the party’s February leadership vote.

When asked about this, Lantz said the tendering process was competitive and that Enhanced Living submitted a bid that was evaluated on the same criteria as other bidders.

“Enhanced Living won it fair and square, and that’s just the way the cookie crumbles,” Lantz said.

Health Minister Cory Deagle said an independent committee evaluated and scored the bids. Deagle said he was not even made aware of who submitted proposals.

“As the minister, I have no say in who scores the highest or how that works. It’s a competitive process, it’s the way it should be,” Deagle said.

The tendering process does not appear to have been easy or brief for any of the bidders. An initial request for proposals was first issued in 2024 before being withdrawn and reissued in spring 2025. Final decisions were not made public until this summer’s announcements.

Simon said Enhanced Living worked on its proposal over a two-year period. He said the company’s bid was either the lowest cost or second lowest cost of all other bidders.

He also said the company has a track record of providing “excellent care.”

“We’re inspected every year by government, and, you know, our last inspection at Whisperwood is probably the best inspection out of any public or private home on P.E.I.,” Simon said.

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Stu Neatby is a political reporter for The Guardian in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached at sneatby@postmedia.com and followed on X @stu_neatby.