Business View Magazine
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tinue to look at: How do we continue to meet the needs
of our residents; how far can we continue to move up the
supportive living stream; and at what point do we need to
intersect with the government so that its requirements
are being met?”
While pondering Chinook’s long-term plans, Sawatzky
reveals some other potential short-term changes to Chi-
nook: “We have plans for this fall to begin an adult-day
program, which would reach out into the community.
That’s a new development for us and we’re looking for-
ward to that; it will be quite exciting,” he exclaims. “And
we’ve begun doing the research and the background
work for bringing in a child day-care program that would
work within our facility. One, to meet the needs of where
our workers are going to be in the next few years, and
also to be involved with the community a bit more. But
the third aspect, which is even more exciting is: what
does it mean to seniors to be around children? We’ve
got a team working on this, right now, and we’re excited
about what this can mean for us.”
When asked what differentiates Chinook Village from
other seniors communities, all three administrators have
something to contribute. Enslen: “I think the life-lease is
one of the key advantages we have, and that is because
when the senior comes in, they’re not bombarded with
needing to talk to a lawyer or a realtor. We have the life-
lease program; everything is straight-forward. The resi-
dent doesn’t have to do a lot, other than write the check,
either for the rent or for the life-lease. And when they
leave, they don’t have to worry about trying to market
their suite, trying to sell their suite, worried about getting
their money back – that all takes care of itself. We look
after that for them. They just get a check at the end if
they’re a life-lease holder, or if they’re renting , of course,
the rent is terminated. So it makes life so much easier
and simpler for them.”
