A community response to the need for safe, affordable, and accessible housing.
In 1984, a small group of people in Grande Prairie started asking a question that no one had a good answer for: where do people with physical disabilities live — safely, affordably, independently — in northern Alberta?
At the time, the answer was often: somewhere else. Institutional care in cities far from home. Apartments that weren’t built for wheelchairs. Homes that worked against the people living in them, not with them. For families in the Peace Region, it meant watching someone they loved leave the community just to find a place to live.
That wasn’t good enough for Ernie Oman, Rose Pike, Jean Rycroft, Ethel Oman, and Kay McNally. They began meeting regularly — not as an organization, not with funding, but as neighbours who believed their community could do better.
“It’s somewhere you can be independent, but there is support staff when you need it.”
— Rose Pike, founding member (1984)
On January 15, 1986, the Grande Prairie Residential Society was officially incorporated. Travis McNally became the first president of the board, joined by Kay McNally, Ethel Oman, Irene Kriaski, and Colleen Kriaski.
Travis brought something to the role that no one else could. In 1983, a horse-racing accident in Regina left him quadriplegic. He knew firsthand what it meant to need a home that worked with your body rather than against it — and he knew what it felt like when that home didn’t exist. He has served as president of GPRS periodically since 1986.
The mission they wrote down that year has never changed: to provide affordable and accessible housing for the physically disabled. Forty years later, every decision the Society makes still comes back to those words.
With city, federal, and provincial support, GPRS purchased land in the Crystal Ridge neighbourhood and broke ground in 1987. Pat Adams donated his expertise as an unpaid design consultant, and what he helped create was quietly historic: five duplexes with six two-bedroom and four three-bedroom units — the first wheelchair-accessible housing built north of Edmonton.
These weren’t apartments with a ramp added as an afterthought. Every detail was designed for the people who would live there. Automatic door openers. Wide hallways and doorways for wheelchairs. Roll-in showers with grab bars. Adjustable-height counters and sinks. Countertop stoves and wall ovens. In-unit laundry. The duplexes were designed so that daily life — cooking, bathing, getting in your own front door — could happen with dignity and independence.
The first residents moved in during August 1988. For many, it was the first time they had a home truly built for them.
“Having a home of your own gives you a piece of independence. You have your own home.”
— Travis McNally (2004)
Demand grew. The duplexes were full and the waitlist was getting longer, so the Society built a six-unit apartment complex right next door at 9609–123 Avenue. It featured ground-level automatic entrances, shared accessible laundry, and a built-in vacuum system — small details that made a real difference in daily life. In the early 2000s, a seventh suite was added and the building became known as the 7-Plex.
Margaret Edgson was a Grande Prairie advocate who believed that people with disabilities should live as part of the community — not apart from it. Her estate contributed significantly to what would become the Society’s largest project.
In 2005, Margaret Edgson Manor opened as a 70-unit complex: 16 fully barrier-free, wheelchair-accessible suites and 54 affordable housing units. It was developed in partnership with the City of Grande Prairie’s Global Housing Initiative — a unique model that brought accessible and affordable housing together under one roof. The building operates sustainably, without ongoing government operational funding.
Behind its doors, hundreds of people have found stability. Some stayed long-term and built a sense of home. Others used the stability to get back on their feet — returning to work, re-entering the rental market, or moving closer to family. The common thread is dignity.
Across three phases, GPRS has developed and manages approximately 87 accessible and affordable units in Grande Prairie. Every one of them exists because a handful of volunteers in 1984 decided their community could do better — and then spent the next four decades proving it.
Travis McNally’s leadership has been recognized beyond the Society. In 2012, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contributions to disability advocacy. He also co-founded the Grande Prairie Injured Jockeys Foundation. But ask anyone at GPRS what matters most, and they’ll point to the housing — the rooms, the doorways, the showers, the homes that work.
On June 9, 2025, a fire struck Margaret Edgson Manor. No lives were lost, thanks to the response of first responders and community members, but residents were displaced and the upper floor and roof suffered significant damage.
The rebuild began quickly. By early 2026, selective demolition was complete and a new roof was finished to updated building codes — all in partnership with Terrace Construction. The GPRS Board continues to work toward a safe, lasting rebuild.
It would have been easy to see the fire as the end of something. Instead, it became the next chapter. The same community that came together in 1984 — that asked a question no one had a good answer for and then built the answer themselves — is doing it again.
Since 1986, the Grande Prairie Residential Society has existed for one reason: to provide affordable and accessible housing for the physically disabled. We’re a volunteer-led, registered Canadian charity (BN 891431264RR0001) that operates accessible housing across multiple phases, in partnership with community members and advocates.
The need hasn’t gone away. The work isn’t finished. But every door that opens wide enough for a wheelchair, every counter that adjusts to the right height, every resident who can say “this is my home” — that’s what forty years of showing up looks like.
“Once it’s built, people will say it’s a good thing.”
— Ethel Oman, founding member (1986)
