Who's in charge of this Agency?
Reading the local papers this weekend, I was out of Town last week, and the report that the "Doctor Retention Committee" is running out of cash jumped out at me. This is probably a misnomer, they spending cash they have never had! It seems to me that whoever is running this agency is running on the wrong assumptions and therefore committing money it never had - or never had any hope of getting. Just who is on the Board of this Agency or does it get run out of the back pocket of Kim Rudd and a couple of chums? The budget was based on taxpayer funded donations from all of the Municipalities in West Northumberland. Unfortunately some of the Municipalities canvassed didn't contribute or only gave partial donations. Thus the cash flow estimate was out of whack. Instead of cutting back activities the committee went ahead and committed to an aggressive budget that will require extra funding to fulfill its purpose.
The question now is should lower tier municipalities fund this kind of activity? I think not - the Province is responsible for Health and to have Municipalities compete with tax dollars in the lottery to attract Doctors is an irresponsible use of tax money. If we have to bribe Doctors to come here how long will they stay, and will they move to a better offer the next time a Municipality comes along with money in hand? It is interesting and satisfying that two of the three new Doctors came from the area before training. Would they have come back home without incentives?
The whole process is unseemly and wasting tax dollars and without good cash flow controls the Committee will be forever coming cap in hand trying to guilt Councils into paying for a process that should be out of their jurisdiction!
And talking about spending money - just who paid for the fireworks in the opening ceremony of the "Peter Delanty Memorial Rink" that interrupted dinner last night?
The question now is should lower tier municipalities fund this kind of activity? I think not - the Province is responsible for Health and to have Municipalities compete with tax dollars in the lottery to attract Doctors is an irresponsible use of tax money. If we have to bribe Doctors to come here how long will they stay, and will they move to a better offer the next time a Municipality comes along with money in hand? It is interesting and satisfying that two of the three new Doctors came from the area before training. Would they have come back home without incentives?
The whole process is unseemly and wasting tax dollars and without good cash flow controls the Committee will be forever coming cap in hand trying to guilt Councils into paying for a process that should be out of their jurisdiction!
And talking about spending money - just who paid for the fireworks in the opening ceremony of the "Peter Delanty Memorial Rink" that interrupted dinner last night?
9 comments:
I think this illustrates that Ben never had to suffer from not having a doctor in Cobourg. Anyone who has, like me, thinks that this should be a higher priority than it is and although the Province should fund it but don't, and although Doctors should not need bribing, but they do, this is a much more worthy cause than the Frink and its fireworks.
FRINKenstein paid for it. And how was the name for the rink selected?
I don't think it has been named yet except derogatorily by lots of people
ben
While I agree that the local doctor shortage is a critical gap in essential health services, I have to agree with Ben too that formalized begging and enticements from the municipalities is not the way to solve the problem. That tactic never worked trying to lure industry, and it won't work now either.
The Province needs to move quickly to license foreign trained doctors in this country who are currently driving taxis in Toronto. That would be a win-win solution.
As to the frink, Peter's Puddle is my sentimental favourite - so far. Am sure there are other suitable names waiting to be heard.
DJO
Peter's Puddle Duddle.
That raises it out of the sentimental mediocrity range into a higher level of sarcaustic wit.
"Peter's Piddling Pond"
"Delanty's Debacle"
"Rink without Reason"
FRINKenstein
Delanty's Diurinal
Boy, there's sure an awful lot of people going OUTSIDE and spending time together and actually using it though ...
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