Discussions Continue

Thursday, 15 January 2015 at 05:38

Oxford County Council backed off granting a $500,000 request from Ingersoll's Alexandra Hospital.

OXFORD COUNTY - It's going to take more discussion before Oxford County Council forks out $500,000 to fund an expensive boiler replacement of an Ingersoll hospital.

Alexandra Hospital has asked both Ingersoll and the County for money for the vital boiler replacement amounting to 1.2 million dollars. County Council considered a $500,000 contribution at the final 2015 budget meeting. During budget deliberations council members grappled with the large funding request, as hospital infrastructure is a provincial responsibility not municipal. One councillor remarked honouring the request would set a dangerous precedent going forward and possibly an expectation from the province that the County would provide infrastructure funding to local hospitals.

Deputy Warden Ted Comiskey said, "The dollars that are required to put this boiler in are going to have to come from three places, that's certainly going to be from the government itself or the hospital foundation through funding or through communities such as Oxford County or Ingersoll..."

The hospital reportedly has 3 million dollars in reserves for 'hospital operations,' for items such as X-Ray machines. Hospital reps stated on Monday at Ingersoll council that due to foundation by-laws they would unable to use that money for the boiler system replacement as it is considered a capital infrastructure expense. Time is running out for the over 30 year old boiler system which Hospital reps said they were told, could conk out at any moment.

After plenty of discussion, Ingersoll Mayor Ted Comiskey withdrew the request citing a numbered of unanswered questions, "It's a situation (funding) where, is it needed as a grant, is it needed as a loan? How much is actually needed? Do we go in at this point in time at the start of the campaign or at the end to finish up?"

County Council decided a meeting would be set with the Warden, Ingersoll Mayor, County CAO and members from Alexandra Hospital to discuss funding options.