A brief history.....

Calgary's original Colonel Belcher Hospital opened in 1919 for World War I Veterans. Located in a former warehouse on 8th avenue, the facility was named for Lieutenant Colonel Robert Belcher, a cavalry officer and charter member of the Northwest Mounted Police. After seven years, the hospital united with the Ogden and Sunnyside Veterans' Hospital and moved to a larger location in the same area of Calgary.

With the outbreak of World War II, the hospital moved to its present site on 12th avenue and 4th street SW., which was formerly the Senator Patrick Burns Estate. Ten years later, the hospital was extensively renovated and given a two-wing expansion.

In 1991, the Colonel Belcher was designated a long term care facility exclusively for Canada's World War I, World War II and Korean war Veterans. Today it operated under the auspices of the Calgary Health Region.

A broad-based and inclusive Veterans Health Task Force (representing government, health care sector, Veterans associations, and the community at large) was struck in 1996 to assess the needs for Veterans health in the Calgary region and to identify requirements for health care services for this population over the next fifteen years. The members of the Task Force undertook a comprehensive review of Veterans and seniors programs and care centres across the country, including an assessment of best practices. At the time of the study there were over 13,500 Veterans aged 65 years or older in the Calgary region. The peak period for care centre requirements for eligible Veterans was identified through the study as the period between 2001 and 2006, when the percentage of Veterans over the age of 80 will reach 60%. It is anticipated that new federal legislation defining Canadian peacekeepers as Veterans will be passed, thereby adding 125,000 additional Canadian men and women to the eligible veteran population that may require longterm care in the future in our country.

From a purely cost-driven point of view, the re-engineering and renovation of the current Belcher facility to meet these increased demands was deemed cost-ineffective. This finding of the Task Force, coupled with an equally important commitment to provide a community-based, homelike care facility that more appropriately meets the needs of this special population, led to the Task Force's recommendation that a new Carewest Colonel Belcher be built. The Government of Alberta (through Alberta Infrastructure) donated the 26 acre parcel of land which is the site for the new Centre, located in NW Calgary at the old Motor Vehicles Branch venue in the communities of Parkdale/Point McKay. The Calgary Health Region has committed $20 million in capital costs for the development and construction of the new Carewest Colonel Belcher. A development partner, Apex Lifestyle Communities Inc. is working with the Calgary Health Region and Carewest on the development of the Centre as well as a private seniors residence located on the same site. The new Centre will welcome residents in March 2003. The Centre will be operated by Carewest, a sector leader in continuing and long term care.