“Very happy to see it started,” said Stéphane Parisien, chief administrator for the United Counties of Prescott-Russell (UCPR), during a Wednesday phone interview.

Work crews and heavy equipment from R.E. Hein Construction Ltd. of Kanata arrived at the Spence Street site on Monday to set up for the start of excavation. The company will provide weekly and biweekly reports to the UCPR on construction progress.

Cost for the new 224-bed long-term care facility is projected at between $70 million and $80 million. Project completion is expected sometime during 2023 according to a timeline estimate from the contractor to the UCPR. That proposed completion date depends on no unexpected delays.

The official groundbreaking ceremony for the project has been delayed until sometime in the spring because of provincial limits on the size of public gatherings during the pandemic.