Alberta to pay $51M for Villa Caritas: union

The Alberta government may be picking up the entire tab for Villa Caritas, a psychiatric facility for seniors moving from Edmonton's Alberta Hospital.

Villa Caritas was planned as a nursing home, but will house senior psychiatric patients after a controversial decision by the province to close beds at Alberta Hospital.  

The 150-bed facility — now under construction beside the Misericordia Hospital in west Edmonton — was to be a partnership with Covenant Health, which was raising most of the $43 million cost.

But documents obtained by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees show Alberta Health Services is trying cover the entire cost, which has ballooned to $51 million.

AHS says the extra $8 million will cover changes to the project needed to accomodate psychiatric patients.

No one from Covenant Health was available for comment. 

The government has not yet approved the request for funding.