People across Wellington County are reacting in different ways to county council’s decision last week to provide $9.4 million in funding to hospitals in Fergus, Mount Forest and Palmerston.
The issue is one of the most interesting and controversial we have seen in the last couple of years in Wellington County. Councillors, as well as members of the public, have aligned themselves on either side of the debate, which is indeed a difficult one to assess.
But once all the fear mongering, and politicking are removed, two undeniable facts remain.
The first is that hospital funding has in the past, and should continue to be, a provincial responsibility. Ontario politicians of all stripes were just last month claiming to be champions of health care, and that portfolio has long been a provincial obligation.
However, the second undeniable fact is the province is short-changing hospitals, requiring the local communities to raise 10 per cent of project costs, which can be cumbersome, if not impossible, for smaller communities.
And local lower tier municipalities simply do not have the resources to commit millions of dollars to hospitals when they are already struggling with tight budgets and ever-expanding infrastructure needs.
So, in this case, the upper tier government can either provide the funding or step aside and leave the hospitals and local communities to fend for themselves.
Given this rock-and-a-hard-place situation, we think it is better to ensure the long-term health and wellbeing of local residents and their communities by stepping up to the plate and making a funding commitment. All but four county councillors agreed.
First off, it’s not like the county is a trailblazer in this regard; numerous municipalities elsewhere have stepped up to help out local hospitals. Burlington, Milton, Orillia, Peterborough, Woodstock and Oxford and Dufferin Counties, to name just a few, are among those who have made sizable donations to hospital fundraising campaigns within the last 15 years or so.
We can certainly understand if some county councillors are opposed to the funding – it is, after all, a massive commitment – but to pit municipalities and residents against one another, as Erin councillors Lou Maieron and Ken Chapman have done throughout the process, was neither helpful nor in keeping with the spirit and original intent of upper tier municipal government.
In addition, the motion passed by Erin town council opposing the funding was counter productive and served absolutely no purpose other than to inflame the situation.
Maieron in particular has flip-flopped in his arguments against the funding. Several times he has maintained public hospital funding should come from the municipalities where hospitals are located, and yet he spearheaded a movement in Erin and convinced town council to use $10,000 of Erin taxpayers’ money to fund hospitals in Orangeville, Georgetown, Guelph and Fergus.
In one of the more ridiculous quotes we have ever heard, in reference to the Erin donations, Maieron stated, “We’ve launched our missile.”
A warfare analogy is odd, considering the county council chamber should be a place for dialogue and compromise.
But continuing with that line of flawed thinking, if a missile was indeed launched, it totally missed its mark. And left behind as collateral damage were unity, foresight and good will.
