St. Marys council agrees to include $125,000 for local hospital foundations in 2025 budget

By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

St. Marys council has agreed to include $125,000 in the town’s draft 2025 budget to support funding requests from two local hospital foundations.

During council’s Nov. 19 budget meeting, councillors heard from representatives of the St. Marys Healthcare Foundation who appeared before council as a delegation requesting $100,000 from the town next year. The money, explained foundation board chair Amanda McCurdy and St. Marys Dr. Josh Burley, represents an increase of $50,000 over previous years – the first increase in funding to the foundation requested of the town in 14 years.

“These funds would support the foundation in the retention and recruitment of doctors for the Happy Valley (Family) Health Team and would, in turn, support the St. Marys Memorial Hospital,” McCurdy said.

“I was the last physician recruited here and it was nice to receive some funds directly from the recruitment and retention board,” Burley added. “So, it certainly helped my decision to come here and begin working in St. Marys.”

As some local doctors retire or prepare to retire, McCurdy said St. Marys needs to remain competitive with its physician-recruitment program to ensure the health team and hospital continues to attract the best-available medical practitioners. She also noted that replacing older doctors who traditionally have more patients built up over the course of their careers often requires two or more younger doctors to take on those caseloads.

At another recent council meeting, representatives from the Stratford General Hospital Foundation asked the town to support its ongoing $30-million In Our Hands capital campaign to the tune of $300,000 over 10 years. As St. Marys residents represent roughly 15 per cent of those treated at the Stratford hospital, the Stratford hospital foundation requested support from the town to help fund a new cancer and medical-care clinic and co-located pharmacy, new and replacement medical equipment, and lab improvements among other capital upgrades.

“There’s no legislation that says municipalities or the public will fund X amount (for local hospitals),” St. Marys director of corporate services André Morin told councillors later in the Nov. 19 budget meeting. “My understanding is the policies the province has, or at least the ministries have, is in order to provide certain funding, they require a local contribution and that local contribution in the past was by donors.

“ … It obviously is a lot easier to come to the municipality and, again, get one lump sum from all of the residents of the municipality, and that’s certainly something that’s been ongoing for some time.”

In addressing the two hospital-foundation requests, Morin said council had two questions to answer. First, does council continue to provide direct, annual support to the hospital foundations; and second, how should they go about doing that?

Nearly every councillor seated around the table expressed the importance of supporting the local hospital foundations. While they agreed neither request was outside the range of reasonability given the needs of both hospitals, the seemingly last-minute increase in funding requested by the St. Marys Healthcare Foundation was a difficult pill to swallow for councillors during a budget-deliberation process that has and will see many other budget requests coming forward.

“I have no problem with the foundation because, despite it being a provincial mandate, what they’re asking is that the money we’re providing invites doctors and says, ‘Let us help you become part of this community,’ and that’s how I see it from that point of view,” Coun. Rob Edney said. “It’s there not just to entice, but to make the whole thing easier and to show them what type of community we are, so I’m all for that.

“And when I saw their number … and I thought about (how) it’s been 14 years since that number was raised, if we compounded the cost of living over that period of time, it probably works out to $100,000 and what they should be given. I don’t think we need to make that big of a jump right now, but we should be doing something a little more.”

Other than deputy mayor Brogan Aylward, who expressed concern with the $300,000 ask from the Stratford General Hospital Foundation and indicated he wanted to see more justification for that contribution, the majority of council seemed to be in support of contributing that amount to the In Our Hands capital campaign, especially since it only represents one per cent of the total $30-million goal.

Ultimately, council voted to set aside a total of $125,000 in the 2025 draft budget to, at least partially, accommodate both requests – a number council can change during future budget deliberations depending on retention and recruitment or capital needs of the St. Marys Healthcare Foundation.

Instead of the $100,000 requested by the St. Marys foundation, council approved a pledge of $75,000 in 2025. Council also voted to have the St. Marys foundation report on its expenditures each year during budget presentations so councillors have a better idea how the town’s money is being spent.

As for the Stratford hospital foundation request, council voted to pledge $50,000 annually over the next six years for a total of $300,000.

St. Marys council to consider draft-budget approval at Dec. 10 meeting

Following the Nov. 19 budget meeting, the Town of St. Marys announced council will consider a bylaw to adopt the 2025 budget on Dec. 10 at its regular 6 p.m. meeting in town hall council chambers (175 Queen St. E).

The draft 2025 budget can be viewed online at www.townofstmarys.com/en/town-services/Annual-Budget.aspx or in person at the municipal operation centre (408 James St. S).

Council held public meetings to deliberate the budget on Oct. 15 and Nov. 19. Another budget meeting is scheduled for Dec. 3 at 9 a.m. in council chambers.

All meetings will be livestreamed on the town’s YouTube channel and are available for viewing. Anyone may attend the meetings and/or make written or verbal statements about the budget. Written statements can be sent to amorin@town.stmarys.on.ca.