After 10 years, new Piyami Lodge finally takes shape

Posted on July 23, 2026 by Sunny South News

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Southern Alberta Newspapers

After a decade of advocating and planning, the Green Acres Foundation’s Piyami Lodge in Picture Butte is finally being replaced with a new two-story seniors’ living community. 

On July 14, residents heard the good news from Green Acres Foundation CEO, Dawna Coslovi and Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services, Nathan Neudorf before a symbolic breaking of a Piyami Lodge wall. 

“Today is such an exciting day for us. It’s a milestone for Green Acres and for the people that live in Picture Butte and the surrounding area, because building a new lodge in this area affects all the seniors in this area of Alberta,” said Coslovi.

She said some of the improvements that residents will see once the project is complete include air conditioning in their rooms and walk-in showers. 

“They’re going to have larger rooms, wider hallways and wider doorways, because a lot of our seniors have mobility devices, so they need that little bit of extra width,” said Coslovi. 

Another improvement to the facility overall will be an increase in the number of rooms from 32 to 50. 

“That’s going to be paramount, because our senior population is growing, and in this facility, we have all levels of care. People can move in and they don’t have to move away from this community,” said Coslovi. 

When talking about the construction process and the logistics behind it, Coslovi said they are approaching it in phases, to allow residents to continue living there. 

“This is going to be a challenge, because it’s easier if we had just bare land, but we have people that live here,” said Coslovi. “We’ve moved people out of one wing already. That will be demolished and rebuilt.” 

That new wing will be a two-story building where seniors can move into once it is done for the next area to be demolished and rebuilt and so on until the project is complete. 

“It will be a two-year process, but this way the seniors that live here don’t have to leave. They can watch. We’ll have a lot of ‘superintendents’ watching this build for the next two years,” said Coslovi. 

She said residents were given the option to move to another residence in Lethbridge while the rebuilding process took place, and some of them moved. 

“We did have a few that moved over there, but knowing that as soon as it’s finished, they can come back,” said Coslovi. 

When talking about the financial side of things, Coslovi said the rebuilt will cost approximately $28 million, but the provincial government is helping them in a big way.

“We’re very fortunate the province has gone forth with $11 million to help us fund this project,” said Coslovi.

Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services and Lethbridge-East MLA, Nathan Neudorf said investments like this in small rural communities, have so much significance for the entire community.

“You can do multiple times that investment in a large city, and it doesn’t have quite the same impact. Both important, very needed, but it is essential for the continuity in smaller communities,” said Neudorf.

He mentioned this project came to fruition because of advocacy done not only by the Green Acres Foundation and local government, but also thanks to the collaboration of multiple MLAs from across southern Alberta as he worked with Joseph Schow and Grant Hunter. While also giving credit to former Minister of Assisted Living Social Services, Jason Nixon, who went through years of work to get the rebuild project to this point.

Picture Butte Mayor, Cathy Moore said she has been involved with this project for longer than she has been Mayor for the last nine years, as she was part of council since 2013 and it is great to finally have this project begin. 

“It’s very exciting, it’s been a long time coming. It’s something that we wanted all along. We’ve been hearing from our residents that they need help, they can’t move in their rooms when they fall, or when they need help, we have to call our local ambulance to come and help them. It shouldn’t be that way,” said Moore. 

She said this improvement is also important for residents, as they have expressed their desire to remain in the community, to remain close to their families. 

“We see a lot of our elderly residents moving to Lethbridge. They don’t want to, but they have to because there’s no room here for them. And the families want them to stay,” said Moore.  “When the elderly residents move, their families tend to go that way too, and that’s not what we want to see. We want to see our community thriving.”

Moore added that expanding the lodge from 32 to 50 rooms, will help the community’s economy to thrive even further, as they are the largest employer in Picture Butte. 

Green Acres Foundation employs 75 people at the Piyami Lodge, and there is a possibility to increase that once the facility includes more residents. 

“That means they’ll be able to hire more people, more local people. Keep expanding the community. That’s what we want. We’re here to grow.”