Paid parking delayed at La Verendrye

Those visiting La Verendrye hospital won’t be paying for a parking spot there anytime soon.
The board of directors of Riverside Health Care Facilities decided at its regular meeting last Thursday to push back the implementation date in order to look at fee options.
Acting CEO Liz Clarke said the board still didn’t know what it wanted to charge the public, as well as full-time and part-time staff at the hospital.
“We’re not ready for it yet,” she said, noting Riverside originally planned to implement the paid parking policy this fall when construction of the new front entrance was completed.
Instead, the Fiscal Advisory Committee will be looking at the issue next Wednesday, with recommendations to come back to the board at its Oct. 22 meeting.
But Clarke wasn’t sure if there would be a charge for parking there by the end of the year. “It’s hard to tell,” she said. “Ultimately, it’s a board decision.”
Riverside had hoped to raise some $30,000 in operating revenue with paid parking this year.
In other news, Maureen Gartshore, administrator of the Fort Frances Clinic, and Linda Bourgeault, manager of emergency and surgical services at La Verendrye, are attending the annual doctor recruitment tour in southern Ontario this week.
The tour will be stopping in Ottawa, Toronto, Kingston, London, and Hamilton, home of the five medical universities in the province. But while Gartshore was focusing on doctor recruitment, Clarke said Bourgeault was looking at all health professionals.
“It’s good to have a presence there,” she noted.