Clinic’s future to be updated in March

FORT FRANCES—With talk about financing, community ownership, and the Family Health Team model stemming back to the fall of 2005, the town will give local residents an update as to the future of the Fort Frances Clinic at a meeting scheduled for Monday, March 5.
“Council has been very active the first two months since the election and the big thing we’ve been moving towards is the Fort Frances Community Clinic issue,” Mayor Roy Avis said Monday morning.
“At this meeting, we will be presenting the terms and the conditions, the involvement of the town, and discussing the $1-million loan the town will be giving.
“I stress it’s a loan because it will be paid back,” the mayor added.
“There’s progress being made there, it’s very proactive,” Mayor Avis continued, noting he committed to keeping the whole process transparent, and that all of the relevant information regarding the clinic will be available to the public.
(While there have been some in-camera meetings regarding the clinic, this has been because they often involve sensitive information, such as personal finances of local physicians).
The March 5 meeting, which will be held at the Civic Centre and aired on Shaw Cable (Channel 10), will include representation from the town, Fort Frances Community Clinic Inc. board, and local doctors.
Clinic board chair John McTaggart will be giving a presentation on the future of the clinic—how the board was formed, its role, and how a community-owned clinic is expected to operate in the future under the Family Health Team model.
“There’s not going to be any secrets,” Mayor Avis said of the information to be made available at the March 5 meeting, which also will be a chance for the pubic to give its input on the town’s financing of the clinic.
“We’ll take recommendations that are put forth by the community,” said Mayor Avis. “If people have a better idea as to the path we should go down as a municipality, we would like them to bring forward a brief so we can consider it.
“We don’t want to be seen as ‘Our way is the only way.’ The rules can be broken,” he stressed.
As previously reported, council previously agreed to draw up a financing agreement whereby it would lend $1 million for the non-profit organization, the Fort Frances Community Clinic Inc., to buy the clinic building—a sum to be paid back over 15 years at zero percent interest.
Mayor Avis stressed the town isn’t buying the building and will not be involved in the day-to-day operations of the clinic. Rather, it is just lending money for the Fort Frances Community Clinic organization to buy it.
“We’re not going down a blind path. We’ve got an appraisal on the building, we’ve got a total inventory of all the assets—and those are things that we can’t really divulge at the present time,” he remarked.
“We’re not buying a pig in a poke. We’re moving down a proper business path.” Mayor Avis said it has taken a long time to arrange this meeting, as it involves three very busy parties and three lawyers.
In fact, only on Friday was it confirmed that all parties would be able to participate in the public meeting on March 5.