Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Following through with their announcement from the previous week, Greater Napanee council officially executed a gifting agreement with Kingston Community Health Centre.
The motion was passed unanimously at the March 26 meeting, allowing municipal clerk Jessica Walters and mayor Terry Richardson to authorize funding in the amount of $313,476 annually for two years.
The partnership will allow KCHC to employ medical professionals as well as human resources and administrative support to allow medical professionals to focus on treating patients. That means more physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners will be available at Lenadco building and Napanee Area community Health Centre to serve residents who lack a family a physician.
“This project that we’re looking at and we’re engaged in has been ongoing for an extended period of time to put this together,” said Richardson. “We feel that in order to get as close to every person within this municipality having primary health care, that this is the model that will do it. The model that we had engaged with prior to the physician recruitment, while it served its purpose, we don’t believe that it’s a sustainable model that will get every person in this municipality primary health care. The concept of this model, that we believe in, is that we’re going to allow doctors to be doctors. They don’t have to focus on the administration, they don’t have to run businesses. they’re going to be provided the opportunity to simply be physicians. That in of itself should see some positive yards with respect to getting people off the Health Care Connect database and into doctor’s offices.”
Richardson acknowledge it will take some time to get the new pilot project up and running.
“We do ask that people bear with us. If they’re already in the Health Care Connect loop, for lack of a better word, those folks will get a hold of you and i think from my understanding obviously they’re going to try and prioritize, the same as they would in an emergency room atmosphere,” said Richardson. “They’re going to try and get the people that need the imminent health care off that list as soon as possible.”
Council Dave Pinnell Jr. was in favour of the program, but noted it’s unfortunate that town tax payers are responsible to fund it. He noted they plan to put pressure on the provincial and federal governments to provide funding.
In response to some questions she had gotten about the program, councillor Angela Hicks went over how staff will gauge it.
“It’s going to be monitored and tracked by finance,” said Hicks. “There will be a lag so you’re not going to know last month’s information until probably the middle of this month or the end of the month. The biggest part of that paragraph is this does not change the town’s understanding that the provision of health care is in the province of Ontario first and foremost the responsibility of the upper tier levels of government. I think the tax payers of Greater Napanee need to realize that we’ve done everything we can within our lawful boundaries, for lack of a better word, to get doctors into this community. It’s well and good to call the councillors and the mayor and the staff, but you should be writing to your MPP and you should be writing to your MP and you should be telling them this is what our town is doing for us, when are you going to step up?”
-In response to a deputation on a road closure allowance, Pinnell Jr. put forward a successful motion calling for all future road allowance closure applications be presented to the recreation committee for review and comment and see if there’s any interest in converting the road allowance into multi-use recreational trail.
-Council approved a $47,350 service contract with Frontenac Municipal Law Enforcement Inc. to provide enforcement for parking, yard maintenance and other municipal by-laws for the remainder of 2024.
-As they prepare for boat season, council accepted staff recommendation for changes to the Centre Street Boat launch.
They include central concrete barriers with no parking signs that will remain in place year-round, removing the boat launch in winter and installing in spring under direction of the manager of facilities and starting next winter, the boat trailer parking signage will be bagged to indicate the enforcement will be done on a seasonal basis.
-Council approved the purchase of four vehicles for the town’s fleet, including two crew cab 3/4 ton trucks ($75,000 each), one regular cab with dump box ($112,000) and one extended cab 3/4 ton truck ($90,000 from the utilities budget).
-Council’s next meeting is scheduled for April 9.