On Monday, family doctors with the Innisfil Health Collaborative team began seeing patients at the new Rizzardo Health & Wellness Centre.
It was a “soft opening” for the centre, located at Yonge Street and Innisfil Beach Road. Work is still ongoing, customizing offices and clinic space for the other planned tenants, who will be moving in and opening their doors over the coming months.
Once completed, the Rizzardo facility will house a range of health-care service providers, and serve as a community hub for residents of Innisfil and the surrounding areas, but the Town of Innisfil decided to celebrate the milestone on Monday with a ribbon-cutting.
Among the invited guests were members of Innisfil council, past and present, town staff, as well as the architects, engineers, builders, donors and volunteers involved in the project.
Jason Reynar, Innisfil’s chief administrative officer, noted that it isn’t every day staff have the opportunity to be involved in a project that will “change the way people live, and change the quality of life.”
The new centre is one of those projects, he said, bringing access to health care closer to home.
“We have already started seeing patients here," Reynar said. "There’s no doubt that this is an exciting time."
It took just over a year from the initial ground-breaking, in March 2018, to the opening. It was “an aggressive timeline and a massive undertaking,” Reynar noted, crediting Lett Architects, Ellis Don Construction, town staff and community support for the quick turnaround.
“It transcends more than just one council,” said Mayor Lynn Dollin.
She pointed out that the groundwork was laid by a health committee established in 2012 under then-mayor Barb Baguley, and moved forward under the previous council of mayor Gord Wauchope.
“Thank you so much to that group who took the bold decision to put the shovel in the ground,” Dollin said.
The current council, she said, “grasped that baton and saw that last lap through.”
Dollin also thanked the community donors who “led us to this project today,” especially Diego and Sandra Rizzardo, of SanDiego Homes, whose contribution of $2 million kick-started the fundraising campaign.
There is still “much more to do,” Dollin noted, but the soft opening and ribbon-cutting allowed people to see the progress, and “what’s the buzz.”
The 4,134-square-metre facility will eventually house diagnostic imaging and laboratory services, family doctors, the walk-in clinic temporarily located at Innisfil Town Hall, a pharmacy, dentist, physiotherapy services, an office of the Ontario Telemedicine Network, as well as a community kitchen and community meeting space.
The cost of construction is in excess of $20.3 million, with donations topping up the town's budget.
The official grand opening will be held this fall.
