4 THE LAC DU BONNET LEADER Friday, July 30, 2010

opinion page

our editorial

Time to get community talking

It looks as if Lac du Bonnet's longtime dream of having a new personal care home is about to become a reality. Reeve Rick Lussier said this week that although the project hasn't yet been approved by the province, it's at the stage where

Marc Zienkiewicz

Lac du Bonnet Leader

The The Lac du Bonnet Leader is published by Interlake Publishing - proprietor and publisher: Sun Media Corporation, a Quebecor Company. The Interlake Publishing's offices are located at 486 Main Street, Stonewall, Manitoba, R0C 2Z0. The 670 Park Avenue P.O. Box 910 Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba R0E 1A0 * 204-345-8611 * Fax 204-345-6344 * Hours Mon-Fri 8:30 am - 5:30 pm BONNY BRENNAN, Publisher 204-467-2421 bonny.brennan@sunmedia.ca the community has been advised to begin fundraising. A good sign. Some may be surprised that the community must fundraise for a new care home. After all, is it not the province's responsibility to provide health care services to those in need? Yes and no. Like with any form of government "help," the community itself must come up with some cash to go toward the capital costs of the facility. In the case of the care home, Lussier said the community will have to come up with 10 per cent of the total cost of the project, pegged at as much as $30 million. Th at is, of course, $3 million the community must raise. Not a small amount of money. Th at $3 million contribution will, naturally, be split between the RM and Town of Lac du Bonnet and, presumably, neighbouring municipalities, as well as the citizens. Th e idea of raising that kind of money may sound daunting, and it is, but it presents a good opportunity for the community to do something it has been unable to do for awhile - rally behind a common cause. Lately, the community has been divided on a number of health care issues, most notably seniors' housing, the building of a private clinic (which we now know is not in the cards), and the care home itself. Th e RM made a decision this week to set aside its $94,000 hospital fund for the care home. If the RM has to raise $500,000, it's now only around $400,000 from doing so. Not bad this early in the game. Th e town has come to the table with nine acres of land it will donate for the care home. A generous move. What still remains to be seen is how much cash can be raised from within the community itself and how much neighbouring municipalities are willing to put toward the eff ort. It's going to take more than chocolate-covered almonds and hot dog sales to raise the kind of cash needed to bring a new 80-bed care home to the region. Having a new care home will undoubtedly have a snowball eff ect that could likely result in a new hospital for Lac du Bonnet has well, something that is increasingly looking more and more plausible. It will take time and patience, but if the community works together as it already is showing signs of doing, it will happen. What it needs to do now is come up with a vision to get the fundraising ball rolling. A town hall meeting, perhaps? How do we get everyone on the same page and get them excited about seeing this care home fi nally happen? Send us your ideas, we'd love to hear them. It's time to get the discussion started. Th e quicker it happens, the quicker we'll start to make progress for Lac du Bonnet and the region. lacdubonnetleader.com MARC ZIENKIEWICZ, Managing Editor 204-268-4567 editorial@mts.net JIM TYERMAN, Advertising 482-7402 sjournalads@bowesnet.com Subscription Rates: Local Rural $52.50 Regional $57.81 National $78.00 Taxes included. $10 service fee for refunds or cancellations. The Winkler Times MARLENE HRYSIO, Administrative 345-8611 leader@mts.net E-mail: leader@mts.net The Red River Valley Echo

letters to the editor

Debt article 'inaccurate'

Re: Town in Top 5 for debt, July 23 Measures must be taken to ensure the accuracy of the information that is published in the Leader. Th e July 23 article inaccurately represents the actual information for Dec. 31, 2009. The provincial spreadsheet referred to in the article utilized the 2009 assessment valuation, however the amount indicated for debenture was approved but not utilized. At the end of 2009, the total debt for the Town of Lac du Bonnet was just over $1 million. Th e spreadsheet indicates a total debt of $2.4 million. When the amount is corrected, the ranking changes the town from fi fth place to 38th place. The Morden Times The Valley Leader Mayor and Councillors Town of Lac du Bonnet

Health goals must be clear

Th e initiatives for a Seniors Housing Complex and the Personal Care Home (PCH) facility are two very separate needs and should not be confused nor compete with each other. While both benefi t the community, competition has developed regarding potential financial aid, as both will require regional community contributions. Th us, we should fi rst understand the level of needs, issues and benefi ts before coming to any conclusions. Th e April/2010 release of the NEHA Community Health Assessment report shows that we are short approx. 42 PCH beds and our wait times for PCH beds are more than double the provincial average. Th is very informative report was compiled by local medical professionals and is available at the LdB Library for the public's interest. For the past 10-plus years, NEHA, local councils and more recently, the MHCC committee have lobbied to bring more PCH beds into our community. On a personal note, we witnessed the reality that on average, 11 of the 17 Pinawa hospital beds over a period of three months were housing patients awaiting a spot in a PCH, some who had been waiting for almost a year. Th e majority of these people would not have qualified for seniors housing as they went straight from home to hospital. Since last March, we have further witnessed the numbers fluctuate between nine to 13 waiting either for a PCH bed or panelling. It has been perpetuating cycle. A cost of $25 to $30 million for a PCH has been mentioned with an expected regional contribution of 10% (2.5 - 3 Million) in land /fi nancial contributions from the region with the balance funded by the government. Seniors housing is a more recent initiative struck by local volunteers with representation from both councils. Th e general concept provides an opportunity to keep local able seniors living independently longer through shared services at an aff ordable rate. Seniors housing will not remove the need for PCH beds, as they are two very diff erent issues. Th ere are existing senior housing facilities and services currently provided through various programs that address independent living under the "aging in home" model. The demand though, for affordable housing is greater than the supply and thus, the recent lobby efforts to build more. The new senior housing model considers both mental and physical health benefits through a communal environment vs. living alone. A cost of $4 million has been mentioned, all to come from private funding, mortgage financing and hopefully some provincial grants. There is no reason why we can't do both, but given the level of expected contributions for both, government purses are not bottomless pits and neither is ours. Th us we need to be clear on our goals. Local studies determine a new 80 bed PCH facility would considerably reduce the dependency on the Pinawa Hospital by freeing up much needed acute care beds and lessening the call to redirect acute care patients to other hospitals because our's is full. So it would make sense to focus on a PCH and address the most pressing need with the broader impact and benefits. This in turn could enable new Senior Housing opportunities perhaps sooner rather than later. The efforts of all those working on these two initiatives are impressive and thanks to them, we have a solid foundation to build a plan. Now, to achieve these things we need to come together, focus, put our priorities in place, and collectively work toward our future. We owe it to our senior's who helped build what we all enjoy today, and to ourselves, for our own future. Cindy Kellendonk Beausejour Review is printed at 1700 Church Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3X 3A2. Copyright and/or property rights subsist in all display advertising and other material appearing in this issue of The Lac du Bonnet Leader. POLICIES We welcome signed letters. Please include address and phone number for verification. The Lac du Bonnet Leader strives for accuracy and balance in its reporting, if there are lapses, we will gladly publish a page 5 correction. Interlake Publishing reserves the right to delete any words or phrases deemed to be objectionable, or to refuse to publish any advertisement. Interlake Publishing shall not be responsible for any loss or damage to any advertiser to appear in any or all of its newspapers or from any error or omission in any advertisement which is published. Copyright and/or property rights subsist in all display advertising and other material appearing in this issue of The Lac du Bonnet Leader. Publications Mail Agreement No 40010074 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Interlake Publishing 486 Main St Stonewall MB R0C 2Z0

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