Local healthcare and infrastructure projects were at the top of the list for West Grey to address during the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference.
Mayor Kevin Eccles and representatives from West Grey joined other municipalities from across Ontario at the annual conference in Ottawa the week of Aug. 18.
Eccles says they met with Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health Anthony Leardi to primarily discuss the Durham Hospital and the South Bruce Grey Health Centre’s (SBGHC) decision to move 10 inpatient beds to other hospitals.
“I think that they get there is an emergency in hospital healthcare in rural Ontario, but I don’t think that we made any headway on finding a solution to it at this point in time. There are some complexities, I get that, but I think that there are ways of keeping it open and supplying healthcare,” says Eccles.
He says they were disappointed members from West Grey were not able to speak directly to Health Minister Sylvia Jones, as she was in meetings with other larger municipalities and cities about their healthcare needs.
“She didn’t seem to be meeting with any of the small rural healthcare issues, that got spelled off to her parliamentary assistant, which with the emergency that we have had declared here in West Grey, it felt just a little bit off that we weren’t getting to where the voice needs to be heard,” says Eccles.
The delegation to Leardi also touched on the effect the removal of beds is going to have on rural healthcare as a whole.
“Whether it be Chesley, whether it be Minden, whether it be Fort Erie, whether it be St. Joseph Island, it is in the forefront in West Grey right at the present moment, but they did indicate it is not an isolated case, this is an attack on rural healthcare,” says Eccles.
He adds the idea of sitting down and discussing healthcare issues and trying to find a solution with the province was not well received.
“There is stuff going on behind closed doors that we are not privy to and I think it would help out if we were and then we could resolve some of the issues,” says Eccles.
The municipality also made a delegation to the Ministry of Infrastructure, where they drew attention to the several bridges in the municipality that are either closed or on the verge of closing and the several millions of dollars West Grey needs to make the needed repairs.
“It is going to cost us probably on average $1.2 million to $1.3 million per bridge to replace. So with 120 bridges, $1.2 million times 120 over the next 25 years, it is a lot,” says Eccles.
He adds the delegation also touched on sanitary and sewer upgrades to help meet provincial housing targets.
“It’s a provincial thing and the province has got to come up with some money,” says Eccles. “We have got the space and we got the infrastructure primarily in place, but the secondary to expand that to where the province wants this growth to happen, we need help financially to be able to meet the province’s obligations.”
He says West Grey is not alone in its need for funding for infrastructure projects as many municipalities in rural Ontario were asking for similar support.
“Are the dollars there? That I can’t say for sure but they need to be rechannelled I believe for a priority system on this infrastructure. It is something that they are going to have to take note of,” says Eccles. “There is a lot of issues that we face where a lot of Ontario faces and I think it brings us as united to the province about how we have got to work together,” says Eccles.