The new Prairie Branches Group Home in Wilkie is making good progress in construction so far, and is expected to be ready for operation later this year.

The new building is serving as a replacement for Wilkie’s current location, and with fewer stairs on the inside, it will be more accessible for people with physical and movement disabilities. It is estimated that the current building has been in place for close to 20 years.

Eunice Washkowsky, the executive Director for Prairie Branches Enterprises Inc., explained how long Wilkie has been working on this project.

“We’ve been actively working on this for about 5 years, and before that, probably 10 years prior. There was always the intent, and a little bit of a drive to do it, but we really pushed over the last 5 years, and the Government of Saskatchewan recognized it as a priority.”

Washkowsky added that the funding for the building was provided by the Provincial Government with help from the Minister of Social Services. While some construction delays were expected to crop up, work has been going smoothly so far.

“We’re using builders out of Unity, and they’ve done a great job in planning ahead, and ordering things that they would normally have waited a few months to order. Things like flooring, so their accounting for the extra time it’s going to take to bring things through.”

As for COVID, the only restriction for Group Home residents at the moment is ‘No Visitors. `

“If a contractor or maintenance person needs to go in, we have a screening protocol, and a masking protocol for workers, and anybody entering the home, but if something isn’t an emergency, we’re just putting things on the backburner just to limit the traffic into the homes.”

Construction on the new building only began in November, so while the workers are ahead of schedule, Washkowsky said the targeted completion of the building is set for August or September of this year.