TDHF receives $9 million for Clearview Lodge expansion and modernization

Posted on March 19, 2026 by Taber Times

By Trevor Busch
Taber Times
editor@tabertimes.com

Taber and District Housing Foundation (TDHF) have received a big financial boost from the province toward commencing their planned Clearview Lodge expansion and modernization project.

In Budget 2026, the province has committed more than $200 million to help build and upgrade seniors housing across the province. As part of the new Seniors Lodge Modernization Program, TDHF’s Clearview Lodge project is receiving $9 million from the province.

“That money – the provincial government funding – represents one third of the project cost,” said Tim Janzen, CAO with TDHF. “We’re still working on finalizing the cost. Ultimately, that comes down to tenders, but we’re anticipating it’ll be between $25-$26 million. The expansion component is a three storey addition with basement that connects to the building. It also includes a new front entry area. That building is about 48,000 square feet and has 56 units in it.”

TDHF’s planned expansion will have some attractive features for residents to take advantage of, explained Janzen.

“It would be straight east of the (current) building, so it actually is a big ‘C’ and connects at the front and connects at the back by our dining room. And so it actually creates a new interior courtyard as well. So that’ll be the second courtyard in the building. And one of the really nice features is people can go out and walk around in the courtyard. It’ll all be graded and likely artificial grass, so you can take a walker-wheelchair off the path and still not have a problem. There’ll be potted landscaping, trees and bushes and flowers, but also the west side is all windows, and we refer to it as the solarium gallery. On the first, second and third floor, we will have meeting areas that look out the windows at the courtyard, so all seasons, you’ll be able to see what’s going on in the courtyard. If your mobility is such that you’re struggling to get around, you can still feel a part of what’s going on there and and be able to get a lot of natural light while still being relatively close to your room.”

Budget 2026 is committing $150 million over the next three years for the Seniors Lodge Modernization Program, in addition to the almost $54 million already allocated to six projects across the province – including the Clearview Lodge expansion and renovation. Outside Taber, the commitment is expected to support more than 1,000 units for seniors across the province.

“We started planning in 2019. We’ve done a lot of work, had this ready to go in 2022 but there was really no opportunity for funding,” said Janzen. “Then the government came out with the Affordable Housing Partnership Program that we applied for twice, and last year’s budget included a line for large modernization funding. So even though there hadn’t been an application process for that, they were looking at the AHPP applications and seeing which ones would fit the criteria. So we’ve actually known for a while that this was going to move ahead. It’s just been finalizing everything with all the partners, and we’re still not actually completely done.”

Financial contributions to the project from other parties have been made, but in order to get shovels in the ground TDHF needs the approval of its municipal partners and the ministry before it can borrow any funds, says Janzen. 

“The Town of Taber and the MD of Taber have committed equity amounts totalling a half million dollars. So that gets us to $16-$17.5 million. The remaining amount – we were a little late to the game for CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) and now are waiting on a Build Canada Homes application. But we have also arranged commercial financing and have a lender that’s given us an expression of interest. But there’s some hoops one has to jump through. We need to have ministerial approval to borrow money. And in order to get ministerial approval, we need agreement amongst all the municipalities. So we’re now trying to get permission from the municipalities to consider to enter into that financing agreement. The reality is, there has been a lot of pressures financially on them recently.”

Janzen admits constructing a new addition and an extensive modernization of the existing building while people are in residence will be challenging to say the least, but he is confident the work will be a relatively smooth transition. 

“The modernization component is bringing the existing facility in its current footprint up to 2026 standards. So there’s 77 rooms there right now. We would end up renovating them into 34 rooms and some meeting areas and some consolidated office space for us. So those rooms, it’s almost like two into one, because that’s how small the current rooms are. So it really is trying to move the building from the ‘60s into what hopefully will be appropriate for the community for the next 60 years. But to do that means a lot of system upgrades. And to change systems like that as part of a maintenance program while people are living in the building, very challenging. There’s quite a few things over the last three, four or five years that we’ve been putting off because it makes a lot more sense to do it as part of an upgrade or updating of the whole building. I realize we will be building while people are living in the building, but the new construction really happens separate of our existing facility. When that new construction is completed, we’ll move 70 per cent of our people into the new building, which clears out a space, then we can renovate that half and then finally move people and finish the last half of our existing building. So 18 months of construction for the new part and then probably 12 months of renovation is the plan.”

Once the project has cleared the hurdles of convincing municipal partners and receiving ministerial approval, hopefully by the end of April, the project will be close to getting off the launch pad.

“The hope is to start early to mid-summer. There are still some I’s to dot and T’s to cross, but we think that falls into the timeline. Right now we have 82 people that live in 77 units. In the 91 units, we think we can have up to 107 people. So that’s net increase of 25 potential residents from the community,” said Janzen.

Parking options for the lodge, including exit and egress, were poorly designed in the original plan for the building and renovations will be addressing this problem.

“One of the big things in the front of the building, our parking lots are very poor. Traffic in and out of there is not the best. This design will have one way traffic flow and more areas for vehicles to pull to the side, be that EMS, the special needs bus or a family member,” said Janzen.

The Seniors Lodge Program is unique to Alberta and is the province’s oldest social housing program. There are currently about 11,000 seniors lodge units across the province, which serve as important community hubs – especially in rural communities. The Seniors Lodge Modernization Program brings together partners from public and non-profit organizations to provide comfortable, supportive housing for seniors in the communities where it’s most needed.

“I’m relatively new to the game. I’ve only been in housing for 10 years. I’ve talked to lots of colleagues with 20 or 30 years, and this has got to be the most amount of money that they’ve (the Province) ever thrown in the 10 years I’ve been involved,” said Janzen. “So we’re quite excited. I know there was a time where they used to fund these facilities at a much higher rate, and that is a learning curve for all of us.”

Making some needed adjustments to the building design and adding additional space will help Clearview Lodge significantly enhance the quality of life for residents, argues Janzen.

“Really, the goal of this project is to update the building and to keep local people in Taber. So, one by having more rooms, and two by having rooms that were updated to what people’s expectations would be in this day and age. If there ever was a criticism, it was the building is kind of showing its age, not so much in finishes, but in design. So the hope always was that we could have an exceptional building that would match exceptional service, then we thought we’d really be providing something extraordinary to the community, and that’s really our goal – we serve the residents. We try and make it their home. Now this would just be an expanded and updated home.”

“We hope that the value of it, and locking in the cost and starting sooner than later is a selling feature, the fact that we really do have more than two thirds of what we think it will cost. We think we’re so close, let’s do this and keep working at it.”

The next intake for Seniors Lodge Modernization Program applications is expected to open in fall 2026. Six projects have been allocated funding so far, including two regional projects:

—$5.8 million for Green Acres Foundation’s Piyami Lodge project in Picture Butte

—$8.3 million for Marquis Foundation’s Peter Dawson Lodge project in Vulcan

Alberta’s senior population is growing: Currently, there are more than 865,000 seniors in Alberta, and by 2035, there will be more than one million – in other words, in 20 years one in five Albertans will be a senior.