The first meeting last week between the boards of Rainycrest Home for the Aged and Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. focused on a definition of the word “amalgamation.”
“One of the things we need to do upfront is define what amalgamation means,” said Rainycrest board chair Dennis Brown, who also is the mayor of Atikokan.
“What the interpretation is for Riverside and what the interpretation is for the Rainycrest board maybe isn’t the same at the present time,” he added.
Riverside board chair Craig Sanders agreed. “Generally speaking, most of the conversation dealt with how are we going to move forward,” he remarked.
“Riverside indicated our view of the governance model that we would prefer going forward,” Sanders said, adding the members of the Rainycrest board who attended the meeting “were somewhat surprised to learn of our view of governance.”
Riverside believes there has to be an agreement on how Rainycrest will be governed after amalgamation before details of how the home will be managed can be worked out.
“We have to establish what the governance model is going to be before we can negotiate the details,” Sanders stressed. “To some extent, Rainycrest is more concerned with the details.”
“Right now there’s kind of a difference of opinion on how this could work that has to do with a governance issue, and that’s where we need further discussion with our own board,” noted Mayor Brown.
The Rainycrest board will hold a special meeting Jan. 18 behind closed doors to discuss possible governance models, as well as the home’s budget for 2005.
“The municipalities contribute a significant amount of money and they need to feel they are being represented,” said Mayor Brown.
“If there can be an agreement reached on that issue, then we should be able to make progress even more, but that has to be worked out first,” he added.
“They had been moving forward on the assumption that we’re all on the same page, and frankly we aren’t,” Sanders said of the Rainycrest board. “We have to get ourselves on the same page prior to the ministry coming here or we’re all wasting our time.”
Representatives from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will meet with both boards at the end of the month to discuss the amalgamation process.
“The ministry is reasonably supportive of the amalgamation,” Sanders said.
Riverside already takes care of Rainycrest’s human resources and payroll. And Sanders said it’s possible the two organizations will collaborate in other ways.
“We’re exploring ways we can do more work for them, or if there are other things we can do for each other that will save money,” he remarked.
The next regular Rainycrest board meeting tentatively is scheduled for Jan. 25, depending on when the ministry reps arrive.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
