Aven Manor Yellowknife and Every NWT Long-Term Care Facility: The Complete List

If you're researching where your parent could be placed in the Northwest Territories, the first thing to understand is that the entire system is publicly funded and government-regulated. There are no private nursing homes in the NWT. Every long-term care bed is managed through the territorial health authorities, and admission is controlled by a single centralized body.

Here is every long-term care facility operating in the territory, what each offers, and how placement actually works.

The Nine NWT Long-Term Care Facilities

Yellowknife (3 facilities)

Aven Manor is the territory's largest long-term care facility, located in Yellowknife. It provides 24-hour nursing care for residents with complex medical and physical needs. Aven Manor handles the highest volume of admissions in the NWT due to Yellowknife's role as the territory's primary healthcare hub.

Aven Cottages sit adjacent to Aven Manor and specialize in dementia and memory care. The cottages provide a smaller, home-like environment designed for residents with Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive impairments who need secure, structured daily routines.

Łıwegǫ̀atı (formerly the new Yellowknife Long-Term Care facility) is the newest addition to the territory's care infrastructure, expanding Yellowknife's bed capacity.

Hay River

Woodland Manor is the primary long-term care facility for the South Slave region. It serves residents from Hay River, K'atlodeeche First Nation, and surrounding communities who need 24-hour supervised care.

Other Regional Facilities

• Jimmy Erasmus Seniors Home in Behchoko — serves the Tlicho region communities
• Northern Lights Special Care Home in Fort Smith — serves the South Slave region
• Elder Care Home in Fort Simpson — serves the Dehcho region
• Sahtú Dene Nechá Kǫ́ Long Term Care in Norman Wells — serves the Sahtu region
• Inuvik Regional Hospital Long-Term Care Unit — serves the Beaufort Delta region

How Admission Works

You cannot call a facility directly and request a bed. All long-term care admissions in the NWT are controlled by the Territorial Admissions Committee (TAC), a centralized body that reviews every application territory-wide.

The process follows a specific sequence:

1. A Home Care Case Manager completes a formal clinical assessment using the Continuing Care Assessment and Placement Package
2. If the assessment determines that home care can no longer keep your parent safe, the case manager prepares an LTC application
3. The application requires a medical exam by a physician, a chest X-ray for tuberculosis screening, and signed clinical and financial consent forms
4. The completed package goes to TAC for review
5. TAC confirms eligibility and places your parent on the territorial waitlist

The Waitlist Is Not First-Come, First-Served

This is the single most important thing families misunderstand. Beds are not allocated by how long someone has been waiting. The TAC uses a clinical priority-of-need model — the person with the highest assessed medical and safety risk gets the next available bed.

This means a parent who was approved last week could be placed before someone who has been waiting for months, if their clinical needs are more acute.

The First Available Bed Rule

Applicants waiting in acute-care hospitals or flagged as urgent in the community are expected to accept the first available bed in the territory, even if it's not in their preferred community. A family in Yellowknife whose parent needs urgent placement could be offered a bed in Hay River or Norman Wells.

Accepting an out-of-community placement keeps your parent active on the waitlist for their preferred facility. Refusing a bed doesn't remove them from the list, but they lose any guarantee of receiving the next offer.

What It Costs

The standard long-term care accommodation rate across all NWT facilities is $1,021 per month (effective May 1, 2026). This covers room, board, and personal care. Residents may face additional charges for non-insured items like hairdressing, social outings, or medications not on the territorial formulary.

Seniors who cannot afford the monthly rate can apply for financial assistance through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE). A Client Services Officer reviews the family's income — including OAS, GIS, and CPP — and applies a subsidy to cover the gap.

All NWT long-term care facilities maintain 100% accreditation through external audits, which is notably consistent compared to many southern Canadian jurisdictions where accreditation is voluntary.

For a complete walkthrough of the application process, waitlist strategy, cost planning, and legal preparation, see the NWT Elder Care Decision Guide.

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