City council narrowly passed a motion that asked staff to prepare a business case that will look at providing $300,000 a year to St. Joseph's Villa for the next three years.
Members of the St. Joseph's Villa Foundation capital campaign team made a presentation to council on Jan. 26, outlining their $4.6-million retrofit program for some much-needed repairs at the long-term care residence.
Mayor Brian Bigger brought a motion forward to direct staff to prepare a business case in response to St. Joseph's Villa's request, to be presented during the 2021 budget deliberations.
The motion was passed by a formal count of six to five. Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre's vote was not recorded and Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann was experiencing technical difficulties during the recorded vote, though she indicated to City Clerk Eric Labelle that she would be voting in favour of the motion.
While the motion did pass, it was not without some furrowed brows and opposition from a number of city councillors.
Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti said that while he appreciated the spirit of the motion he couldn't support using city money to fund a provincial long-term care home, cautioning council about setting a precedent by funding an organization that falls under the province's umbrella of responsibility.
"The concern I have with the motion is these long-term care facilities are provincial matters and if the municipality starts setting a precedent of contributing to one long-term care facility, what stops other long-term care facilities from coming forward with the same requests for funding from the municipality?" said Signoretti.
"The money should be coming from the provincial level to support initiatives like this."
Ward 4 Coun. Geoff McCausland echoed comments he made on Jan. 26 when the request was first made to council, doubling down on Signoretti's comments about where the responsibility falls when it comes to funding long-term care homes.
"We have a lot of our own leaky roofs that we need to take care of, if we can't provide a million dollars to each of the homes in our community it's not fair to pick one," said McCausland.
"I appreciate that we want to support this excellent local home and all the residents that are living there, but how are we supporting them if we're enabling the province to continue underfunding long-term care homes across Ontario."
Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini backed the mayor's motion and was hopeful that it would send a message to other not-for-profits in the city.
"I think what it will do is it will bring a lot of the other non-profits out of the woodwork that need help, we talk about the hospice for instance," said Vagnini. "I think this is a great jumping off point and if we can put some of these large scale projects behind us, this will offer a real opportunity."
Gerry Montpellier of Ward 3 felt it was more important to prioritize Pioneer Manor, the city's long-term care facility, before handing out money to other facilities.
"One year ago I sat here and defended the retaining of Pioneer Manor as it was pushed as something that should be sold," said Montpellier.
"The reason it was suggested to be sold was because it was said we couldn't afford to keep our own. If it was thought that our own was too expensive to keep, how can we support one that belongs to the province? I'll have to decline supporting this because what if our Pioneer Manor needs a new roof next year and we said we have no money because we passed it on to other provincial identities?"
The motion wound up passing by a narrow margin and staff will prepare a business case that will be presented during council's budget deliberations.
