When Groves Hospital officials announced they were building a new hospital rather than renovating the old one, Norm Trask felt his family had the land for it.
Groves officials confirmed his belief on Dec. 12 at a public meeting, but Chief Executive Officer Jerome Quenneville noted there are a number of obstacles to overcome first.
But the property does qualify. The land was the farm of the late Wilfred Trask, a former Nichol reeve and county warden. He left the property to his wife, Jean, and children Norm, Kevin, Eric, and Karen.
Norm Trask said in an interview after the public meeting the land contains 123 acres and no buildings, and is farmed currently by Morley Trask. Norm Trask added that he does not care which part of the land the hospital board wants because the family is “flexible” about that.
He noted there are sewer connections available at Beatty line to the Fergus plant, and also at the northwest part of the property, which serves the Wellington Terrace at the Elora plant.
“We approached them a year ago,” he said of the possible sale of the land “as soon as I heard they were going to build a new one. I said this is the best site.”
Governance
One thing Quenneville stated during the hospital board presentation was that the board will own the new hospital and the land it is on.
Currently, Centre Wellington owns the hospital and appoints the members to the board.
Before that, the hospital was owned by Fergus until amalgamation, and the town appointed the hospital board.
A few years ago, the board attempted to redraw the governance agreement, which would have given it authority over itself, and removed it from the hands of the township.
That effort failed, but the township did make some changes to the governance of the hospital at that time.
Centre Wellington Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj, who attended the board presentation, said the changes for the hospital board “need to be looked at.” She said the entire project, including governance “is a huge issue we’re both going to have to address.”
But, the mayor said, the township owning a hospital is an unusual situation in Ontario today.
“The province did not support the township’s stand,” she said. “They made it very clear this isn’t typical across the province. Now, we have a new situation coming. The discussions will be there.”
Ross-Zuj said the question of the township’s role in, say, appointing board members will be tricky. She said everyone will have to count on the good will of the provincial government.
Hospital board chairman Janet Vallery said Groves will still run on the same volunteer model of today, and she said that, too, is rare in Ontario today, where most are run on a regional model basis.
As for the governance model, “We’ll have to work that out,” Vallery said.
