A spokesperson for East Borderland Community Housing says they are now looking at other creative ways of bringing a nursing home to the Rural Municipality of Piney.

For the last decade, the group has been hosting a book sale one or two times per year at Clearspring Centre in Steinbach. The goal has always been to build a personal care home around Sprague. Elsa Laing is Chair of the organization. She explains when they first started fundraising, they were told to generate 10 per cent of the project locally. Laing says they eclipsed that mark in the last couple of years, but the story has changed following the amalgamation of regional health authorities and the election of a new provincial government.

"It's been challenging with the new administration, the new government, with the new regulations that they've put in place," admits Laing. "We had hoped they would make some concession for an area like ours, which is very rural, but they haven't really said anything to date."

Laing explains the RM of Piney does not have a nursing home. Yet, she says the need is very great as seniors are being forced to relocate in their golden years. Laing says this is frustrating, not only for seniors but also their families.

But, even though East Borderland Community Housing has not received the answer it has been waiting for, Laing says they are not willing to stop their fundraising efforts. And so, this week if you step foot inside Clearspring Centre, you will again see rows of books looking for a new home. Laing says they are hoping to raise between $4,000 and $5,000 at this sale, which is average for them. She notes over the years their sales have generated a total of between $50,000 and $60,000. When you factor other donations and fundraisers, Laing says their group has raised approximately $400,000.

Laing says the need for a personal care home is so great that it is difficult to cease their efforts.

"So we're going to continue and just in the recent weeks and months we have been as a community brainstorming and discussing how we could do something that is more creative," notes Laing. "So, early days on that subject but we are having some discussions on how we could do something that could bring this to reality."

Laing says many communities are doing very creative things with nursing homes. She says when you have resources in a community to pull it together, it becomes doable. However, Laing says in the RM of Piney it is a challenge.

"I guess the question is, can our community, the RM of Piney come together and build a nursing home", asks Laing. "So that's the question we're asking ourselves, we do not have the answers to date."