Construction on a new Children's Treatment Centre in Chatham has officially begun.
A ground breaking ceremony on the nearly $66-million build - which will help thousands of children with special needs and their families connect to rehabilitation services closer to home - took place on Monday.
Michael Parsa, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, was in Chatham on Monday for the ceremony.
In a statement, Parsa says building a new state-of-the-art Children's Treatment Centre is one more way the government is ensuring families can connect to specialized services, no matter where they live.
The new 58,000-square-foot, fully accessible building, will be replacing the existing centre to provide a larger space to treat those in need.
The new centre will be located at the end of McNaughton Avenue West in Chatham-Kent.
The new centre will offer a team of professionals who provide a range of specialized rehabilitation and respite supports such as speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, audiology, among others.
The total project cost is $65.9-million, with the provincial government contributing $58.9-million for the build.
The current Children's Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent provides services to more than 3,700 children and youth with special needs.
