CORNWALL, Ontario – City of Cornwall Chief Financial Officer Tracey Bailey explained to council that the City’s seniors home Glen Stor Dun Lodge would be receiving less money from the provincial government this year.
The Ministry of Health will be reducing Glen Stor Dun Lodge’s funding by $42, 000. The Ministry of Health reduction means that the City of Cornwall will have to make up the difference in their budget in order to meet the Lodge’s needs.
The $42, 000 increase will be felt by Cornwall’s residential property tax payers. As it stands now, the Residential Property Tax rate is set to increase by 4.11% or $92 per household.
Councillor Andre Rivette slammed the Province for taking funding away from some of the community’s most vulnerable members.
"We’re not getting enough money for the Lodge for our community," he said. "Those residents are past pillars of our community, they are pillars of our community. Someone needs to sit down with the ministry and say "What do you need to hear to give us the money we need." They are not giving us the money we need to maintain our seniors."
Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy agreed with Councillor Rivette’s idea of taking the case back to the Province. He suggested that he, CAO Maureen Adams and other Council members meet with the area’s Local Health Integration Network (LHIN).
LHINs are Provincial organizations responsible for dispersing funding for healthcare at the local level.
Councillor Claude McIntosh warned that petitioning the LHINs might fall on deaf ears.
"The LHINs are being squeezed from the top," he said. "The Province is basically broke. They basically need to cut millions and this is only the beginning."
