ELORA – Centre Wellington council voted on Aug. 22 to address a letter of support for a planned new hospice in the township to the Ministry of Health, reversing its previous July decision not to support such a letter.
Councillor Kirk McElwain put forward a notice of motion on Aug. 22 to reconsider council’s July 18 decision, when council voted not to send a letter of support, requested by Dr. Alan Simpson, one of the organizers of a movement to have a hospice located in the county.
Normally the motion wouldn’t come forward for discussion until council’s next meeting, but councillor Neil Dunsmore moved to expedite the vote—requiring two-thirds of council to vote in favour, and another two-thirds majority to vote in favour of reconsidering their earlier decision.
Councillors Steven VanLeeuwen and Stephen Kitras both voted against the two motions, but the rest of council voted in favour, putting the original motion – to provide a letter of support for a rural hospice in the county – back on the floor.
Councillor Bob Foster said he had “lengthy and detailed conversations” with Dr. Simpson and at least 60 citizens since the previous council decision and now had an informed decision.
Foster abstained from the July 18 vote, which counted as a “no.”
“There is widespread support for a hospice in Wellington County,” Foster said on Aug. 22. “People are passionate and unanimous” about it.
The key sticking point in July was that the new hospice would provide medical assistance in dying (MAID).
Foster said in speaking with Dr. Simpson he learned: three doctors must sign off on the medical procedure; only a competent, adult patient can request MAID; and death must be foreseeable and imminent for the patient.
“MAID is legal in Canada … and we don’t have jurisdiction,” Foster said. “We should have a hospice in Centre Wellington.”
VanLeeuwen said he sees the need for a hospice in the county, but morally doesn’t agree with taking a life under any circumstance.
“MAID is not health care,” he said. “This is a slippery slope.”
Kitras said he supports a hospice providing palliative care, but not MAID, adding that two of his family members went to hospices for end-of-life care and those facilities “threatened” and “bullied” his family to go the MAID route.
He suggested MAID is about saving money and not providing palliative care and called it “a killing machine for the poor.”
“MAID and palliative care don’t mix well,” Kitras said. “I am for good palliative care, but MAID is discriminatory. It targets the poor, weak and vulnerable. We should defeat this.”
Mayor Kelly Linton said that procedurally, when councillors moved to defer or refer the July 18 motion, it effectively cut the ability for council to have more discussion.
He added that the county signed a letter of support last week, and donated two acres of land at Wellington Place for the six-bed hospice.
“This is something I think is absolutely necessary,” he said.
Ultimately, the original motion was passed, with VanLeeuwen and Kitras voting against, and the rest of council voting in favour.
After the meeting, McElwain said he originally voted against the motion “because we didn’t have the data to have an informed decision. Questions were cut off. The deferral shut it down.”
After speaking with constituents and Dr. Simpson, he said he’s in favour of a new hospice in the county that provides MAID.
