Services restored at Women’s Health Clinic following aging infrastructure disruptions

After a week of major service disruptions, the Women’s Health Clinic will finally re-open. CTV’s Alexandra Holyk has the latest.

After a week of major service disruptions, the Women’s Health Clinic on Graham Avenue will finally re-open Tuesday.

A busted boiler, burst pipes, and steam shut the building down for several days, forcing staff to reroute clients to other locations.

“Things like our birth control (and) pregnancy counselling program, our general counselling program, and our eating disorder program – those were mostly switched to virtual or on the phone,” said executive director Kemlin Nembhard. “And in some cases, if we could move them to in-person at one of our other locations.”

However, the detours will no longer be necessary.

“It’s safe to be in the building. It’s good to be in the building, and so we want to make sure for clients and staff that things are safe.”

Nembhard said the building’s aging infrastructure was on full display last week – the second time in six months.

“All the ceiling tiles were basically soaked full of water, so they all needed to be replaced,” Nembhard told CTV News while pointing to the stripped ceiling.

Located at 419 Graham Ave., the building was built in the 1960s and still has its original heating and cooling systems in place.

“We own the building, we’ve chosen to stay in the building and redevelop the building, and we’ve known that we need to do that now,” Nembhard said. “We needed to do it yesterday.”

But Nembhard noted the clinic can’t do it without funding. She said they’ve created a capital campaign to restore the building, with costs estimated around $20 million.

“We’ve been in discussion with the feds and the province around supporting that project,” said Nembhard. “I’m hoping in the next few days or weeks, we’ll hear something.”

Nembhard said public sector support is needed first, before the clinic turns to private donors. Manitoba’s health minister told CTV News the province is working on it.

“The clinic has a vision for what that area of health care will look like in the future,” Uzoma Asawara said. “That takes time though, right? That certainly isn’t a project that would happen overnight or even in a year or two. It takes time.”

But Nembhard believes time isn’t on the clinic’s side.

“This building is old and this is not going to be the last time it happens, right? This is going to happen again.”