A $1-million donation request from North Wellington Health Care (NWHC) for planned upgrades at Louise Marshall Hospital should be turned over to the upper tier government, councillor Andy Lennox is suggesting.
At the April 28 Wellington North council meeting Lennox presented a notice of motion on the request, which council was expected to address at its next meeting.
The hospital is looking to raise $5 million for the construction of new emergency room and ambulatory care facilities to accommodate visiting specialists and an increase in patient visits. The campaign goal is a requirement of the provincial government, which is contributing 90 per cent of the total renovation cost.
Wellington County has also received a $9-million funding request from NWHC CEO Jerome Quenneville, who is also CEO at Groves hospital in Fergus. The $9 million would see $5 million go towards construction of a new hospital in Fergus and the remaining $4 million split for renovation work at Louise Marshall and Palmerston District Hospital.
The $1-million request for Louise Marshall Hospital was made to Wellington North council in mid-March and deferred to its May 12 meeting.
In March Lennox raised concerns about the request, stating the $1 million “equates to a 16.5 per cent (tax) increase over and above what we already require, whether this is spread out over a number of years or not.” He also raised additional concerns about the request and council’s lack of opportunity to discuss it prior to the May 12 meeting.
“Upon doing some research, I discovered that requests for municipal funding of hospital projects has occurred a number of times in the past,” said Lennox. “For a period of about the last 30 years these funding requests have been dealt with by the county level of government.”
Lennox said he was approached by a township resident concerned about making a private donation and then having to pay for funding requests out of taxes at the local and county level.
“I think we all recognize that there is only one taxpayer and perhaps we should consider whether it is appropriate for our local municipality to be considering the funding request at this time,” Lennox said.
“Precedent in Wellington County would indicate that if property tax dollars are to be spent on hospital projects that it has come from the county level. No other lower tier municipalities in Wellington County are considering such a donation.”
Lennox said the county, with its financial resources, is “better positioned” to deal with more than one funding request.
“The county also has a much greater ability to pay for these contributions,” Lennox added. “As recently as 2011 Wellington County had a reserve fund set aside for hospital funding requests. Also, we collect more dollars for county taxes than we do for local purposes and the county has annual revenues that are more than 12 times ours.
“It may be prudent for our council to wait for the outcome of that decision before making one ourselves.”
Council approved the notice of motion, which will be discussed at its next meeting.
