Terri Galusha
Dear editor:
In response to Duane Hicks’ March 30 article, it is good to hear the Fort Frances Physician Recruitment and Retention Committee continues to work on getting more doctors to our area.
Yet funding ideas for recruitment and retention were limited to suggesting that locum physicians, coming in to fill much-needed gaps in service, should start paying for their accommodations.
This actually may serve to deter visits to our area from the very people the committee seeks to attract. Are pressing financial needs leading us to work at cross-purposes?
Elliot Lake is an excellent example of strong municipal planning in response to economic crisis.
Elliot Lake saw its mine close in the 1990s. In anticipation of the mine closure, in 1987 the city established the non-profit organization called Elliot Lake Retirement Living, with the goal of creating economic diversification.
Using such methods as offering free hotel accommodations for tours of the community, Elliot Lake successfully has re-branded itself as Ontario’s premier retirement community.
In its economic diversification efforts, Elliot Lake was wise to tap into the growing aging population early on. But people don’t move to Elliot Lake to retire because it’s an aging community—they move there for what the area has to offer.
What does Elliot Lake have that the Rainy River District does not? We have beautiful municipal riverfronts and walkways, and access to innumerable bodies of water that make up the Lake of the Woods chain.
We have beautiful farming communities, with some of the lowest-priced farmland in the province. Our scenic highways are a perfect weekend ride for the motorcycle enthusiast.
We have cross-country ski trails, snowmobile trails, artist development, and volunteer opportunities. Real estate prices in the west-end communities are extremely affordable.
We have medical clinics, multiple hospital and long-term care sites, and assisted living services. We are a spiritually-vibrant community. We are a mere five-hour drive to the Twin Cities, with access to everything a metropolitan area of that size has to offer.
Importantly, we have safe communities.
Physician recruitment should be considered one important aspect of a comprehensive long-term economic strategy that supports the entire district.
Most notably, an economic strategy that focuses on attracting retirees and their investment dollars will not result in irreversible harm to the natural beauty or social characteristics that make our communities so special.
(Signed),
Terri Galusha
Devlin, Ont.
