The question of how the funding gap for the wellness centre would be filled was settled last week, as Town of St. Paul council moved to contribute an additional $2 million to ensure the project would continue as planned.
The mayor expressed his gladness at the time, and council celebrated the announcement, knowing that nothing is holding this project back now.
But while the Town is to be commended for ensuring this project could go ahead, and by planning for it without raising taxes or taking out a debenture, it is a disappointment that the County of St. Paul will not be an equal partner in the wellness centre.
Reeve Steve Upham indicated that one reason that the County of St. Paul decided not to increase its initial contribution of $1 million to the project was because he and his council felt the medical centre should have third party management rather than having the Town of St. Paul CAO and other town staff manage the centre; however, town representatives did not feel third-party management was necessary.
Upham makes a lot of sense when he talks about bringing a “true business paradigm” to the medical centre, and he draws a good analogy with the example of the M.D. of St. Paul Foundation. The County and Town of St. Paul, as well as the Town of Elk Point, are all represented in the foundation’s board of directors, but the third party management takes care of running the various seniors’ housing facilities.
If third party management was one of the “drop-dead” clauses of the county, it might have been the politically and financially astute thing to do for the town to agree to this measure to keep the county on board as an equal partner in the wellness centre.
This situation of municipalities providing a wellness centre, which will offer doctors’ services and other potential medical services, is still fairly new, and there is sure to be a learning curve in handling such an ambitious project.
The Town of St. Paul’s management and staff are surely competent and intelligent people, but they already have a big job in running the town, without having to take on the additional task of running a medical centre, of negotiating leases, of recruiting services and whatever else may come up in the maintenance and operation of this facility.
The town and county have now made their decisions and rolled the dice; only time will tell now if this decision to forego third party management is the right one.
