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Council opts to set up reserve to fund potential new hospital

Councillors will determine amount during budget deliberations; Mayor said it's 'forward-thinking and progressive' idea
2018-11-29 Carmine Stumpo OSMH
Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital president and CEO Carmine Stumpo speaks during a town hall meeting last year about the hospital's redevelopment plans. Nathan Taylor/OrilliaMatters

City council has decided to set up a reserve fund to help pay for a potential new hospital.

For now, the elected officials have not yet determined how much money - if any - they will put aside this year as that is a discussion that will be held during the 2020 budget deliberations slated to get underway this fall.

Orillia Mayor Steve Clarke said the decision made at Thursday night’s council meeting “doesn’t have a monetary value attached” to it.

He said, rather, it’s a move to set up a “mechanism to which we could begin contributions at some point.”

He said the city has done this in the recent past.

“I will suggest staff have been very prudent in the past in doing something similar when we are anticipating possible significant expenditures,” said the mayor, who noted the city, in advance, put aside money to deal with rising OPP costs and anticipated operating costs at the new recreation centre.

“These were forward-thinking and progressive moves staff did,” said Clarke.

But Coun. Ralph Cipolla questioned the wisdom of the move - or, at the least, its timing.

“I’m a strong supporter of the hospital (and) totally support the idea (of redevelopment), but is it a little early?” he asked.

He noted a potential location for a new hospital has not been determined. 

“We don’t know if the province is even going to support a new hospital at this time,” said Cipolla. “So, to put that kind of onus on the taxpayer at this time, I think, is a little premature.”

But the mayor and Coun. Ted Emond, who represent the city on the Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH) board, said the concept has merit.

At a meeting this week of the group bidding for a new Ontario Health Team in Orillia, the city’s support was recognized.

“The resolution we passed in support of that initiative several months ago was instrumental in the Ontario Health Team being included as one of 31 health teams in the province, out of 150, to move forward to the next stage,” said Emond.

“It was deemed quite unique that a municipality was standing up and supporting this,” he added.

While this is a separate issue, the idea is similar, he suggested.

“The hospital is going through a series of phases with the ministry,”’ said Emond. “To the degree that our municipality is aligned with our hospital and health care, generally speaking in our community, in support of these activities will be seen by the ministry as very positive.”

Emond conceded the money may not be required any time soon.

“All things suggest that at this point if (a new hospital was built), that our municipality would need a number of years of economic planning in order to participate,” he said. “This just puts in place the vehicle for that to occur ... so that we won’t be running to catch up and burdening our taxpayers.”

In the end, the majority of council agreed. The reserve will be created and councillors will determine during budget deliberations how much money to set aside.


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Dave Dawson

About the Author: Dave Dawson

Dave Dawson is community editor of OrilliaMatters.com
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