Town Unanimously Approves Funding for Hospital Expansion

Last night Town of Halton Hills Council finally gave an answer to Halton Health Care regarding their request for $ 4.546 million to support the renovation and expansion of Georgetown Hospital. Subsequent to this request, that was made on January 10th 2011, Mayor Bonnette made many attempts to coax the Province to fund this necessary project. However, we have not had a response as yet. Therefore, since we are at the deadline for placing a special hospital levy on the tax bill, we needed a decision from council. Last night we decided to go half way in last attempt to get the Province to the table. Below is text of my comments last night.

Hospital Funding




First I would like to thank Mayor Bonnette for his leadership for his report recommending partial funding of the Hospital’s request. It calls for a grant of $2.682 Million. (representing a 1.1% tax increase as a special levy)



Councillor Hurst, as a member of the Hospital Board has made a compelling case for the need for the Georgetown Hospital Expansion to house the CT scanner and to make improvements to the ER and diagnostic imaging department.



The hospital and medical care in general are extremely important services that are vital to the livability and general prosperity of our town. When these services have been found to be either threatened or insufficient in the past then our town council has rallied support and resources to address the situation. Although heath care is not one of the services that is the purview of the local municipality, we are the hub of local activism and the place where people expect leadership when there is an important local issue needing local action.



When we had a shortage of local doctors, we started a physician recruitment committee. When Acton had a problem with a lack of medical facilities we helped with the construction of the new Acton Medical building. We as a town subsidize the Acton Nurse practitioner. And of course when obstetrics was slated for closure there was a magnificent response from our community and local municipal leadership to win that battle. All of this has been done in the interest of ensuring that our residents get the medical attention that they need within their own communities.



We now face a situation that is common throughout the province of Ontario. We all know that the greatest challenge the provincial government is facing is the escalating cost of providing health services, and it is just going to get worse as we face the ageing baby boomers and the demands we are going to place on the system.



Although we all pay hefty income taxes and in turn expect that the health care system will be provided to meet our needs it is obvious that the province is struggling and when every community is demanding its fair share, we need to have a strong voice making those expectations known at the provincial level. I commend our MPP Ted Arnott for his efforts in putting forth our needs to the Health Minister, and I have read what Ted had to say in Hansard. I also commend our mayor for his efforts via meetings and letters. These initiatives are essential if we want to receive our fair share of the health care dollars.



When the hospital representatives came before us and asked for help, it was also at the time when we were considering our budget and in particular the arena debate was about to begin. The public provided a considerable amount of input via email and letters. Although this was never framed as an ‘either or’ debate, many people did weigh the relative importance of arenas verses hospitals. People generally either did not understand that municipalities look after arenas and provinces look after hospitals or they simply did not care. The vast majority said that the hospital was their number one priority and they wanted us to make it our priority.



Although Hospitals are primarily the province’s responsibility they have always been to some extent a local responsibility. The question is really about the ratio. We would like it to be 90% province and 10% local municipality but we can see that that is not going to fly unless we are willing to wait for some indefinite amount of time - maybe 8 years. Our community does not want to wait 8 years. And so we must act. We need to step up, as so many other municipalities are doing all around us.



We have waited as long as we can to get an answer from the province before we need to make a decision on funding. I am therefore seconding the motion to support the expansion of the Georgetown Hospital. At least our tax payers will know that their tax dollars are going to be spent in their own community for their direct benefit.

Hopefully the province see fit to share the responsibility and make a modest investment of $1.864 million to bring the Georgetown Hospital up to modern standards.

Food and Farming Part 2

I have been observing some very interesting things starting to happen at the grass roots level with respect to food production. These things are very welcome in my mind because I have also been watching the approaching "train wreck" of the on-going world-wide population explosion, climate change, degradation of the oceans, food price spikes, desertification etc. This list includes two trend lines that can't help but cross each other with serious consequences. One is the loss of food production and the other is the exponential growth in human population.

Over the past 50 years or so we have seen food production turned into big business with a focus on profit by shareholders and commodities speculators. There has been a steady loss of small farms in favour of  larger  farms that have shifted towards specialization and exportation over diversification and local markets. This is in the name of efficiency but at the same time apparently "sales-only" income for farmers is hitting rock bottom which raises the question of sustainability.

It was of interest to me this morning to read a Canadian report focused on Canadian food policy that calls for a restructuring of Canadian food production from start to finish. You can access this report at http://peoplesfoodpolicy.ca/files/pfpp-resetting-2011-lowres_1.pdf . It amazed me to learn that it was developed over 3 years and was the result of input by over 3500 Canadians. These people sat around kitchen tables and talked about what was important to them. This fact alone ties into my previous blog concerning apathy. It is obvious that people are not apathetic about issues that are important in their lives.

I was struck by the similarity of the Food Issue to that of Health Care in Canada. It seems obvious that change in food production and the way we treat those who produce it will only happen through changes in public policy. It will not be undertaken by corporations that control s huge proportion of the food  production system. It was the same  when medicare was adopted as a public policy. Medicare was never advocated by the medical profession but rather by a visionary politician, Tommy Douglas, who saw the need to re-organize the system to make it better for all of us.

To quote the People's Food Policy Report, Canada needs  "a policy which places the well being of the majority and the health of the planet at the centre of all decisions". 

Coincidentally, I will attending a Think Tank on Wednesday organized by Laurent Thibault who is chairing the Town's Economic Pillar of the Halton Hills Sustainability Advisory Committee.  Central to the discussion will be a position paper prepared by Laurent that emphasizes the importance of our local agricultural industry and the opportunities we have to capitalize on this resource.

I am looking forward to this week's discussion as we tackle locally issues that are clearly being discussed in many other communities across the country.

I also look forward your reaction to the issue of food production particularly in the local context.