Councillors here have rejected paying the annual fee of $10,000 for doctor recruitment, but the vote was close and the issue will likely come back for reconsideration.
Finance director Mike Givens told council in a report that Mapleton has been paying for a group to recruit health care professionals since 2005, and in the first two years, the township gave $5,000 a year. Since 2007, that amount has doubled to $10,000.
In a letter to council in March, the Minto-Mapleton Health Professional Recruitment Committee co-chairman Shirley Borges stated that with the financing from the communities, “the committee was able to market and promote our community as an excellent place to learn and practice health care.”
She added that over the next three to five years, three of the current eight physicians in the northern communities in Wellington County will be of retirement age.
“Given this, the recruitment committee needs to aggressively step up its efforts to market Mapleton as an ideal place to live and work in health care,” said Borges.
The budget for recruitment this year included:
– $4,000 for promotional materials and attending events;
– $7,500 for medical school recruitment tours;
– $24,500 for recruitment site visits and relocation expenses; and
– $40,700 for recruitment staff support.
Of the four municipalities involved in the recruitment effort, Mapleton, Minto, and Wellington North are each asked for $10,000, and Southgate Township is asked to contribute $5,000.
As well, Wellington North Health Care provides $41,700, bringing the total budget to $76,700.
Mayor Bruce Whale said while the presentation from Borges was in March, council had yet to make a decision.
Councillor Andy Knetsch was enthusiastic about the program, and said, “I think we’re going to get our bang for the buck.”
He said four or five million Canadians do not have a family doctor. Whale said the issue has been left quite late, and he assumes the committee has already spent the money. He said the township needs to ask the committee “long term, how we justify this.” He said there are more graduates these days from medical schools.
Councillor Neil Driscoll said the request is “a lot of money,” and noted only $7,500 of the total budget is being spent on lobbying at medical schools.
Council then decided it would receive the request for information. But when it came to approving the request, councillors Driscoll and Mike Downey opposed paying it, with Knetsch and Jim Curry in favour.
Whale broke the tie by defeating the motion. He said he is reluctant to spend that kind of money with only half his councillors in favour, and he would like the committee to clarify if Minto and Wellington North have paid their shares this year for the work.
“It’s an important enough issue I’d like to see a majority of councillors supporting it – without my vote,” Whale said.
He added he also wants to hear from the committee about its long range plans and how it sees its operation into the future. He remembered the original requests and said, “At the time, I thought it was set up in the short term.”
Council then heard at its Nov. 8 meeting that Borges would be attending a council meeting later in the month to answer any questions councillors have about the request.
