Four candidates for the Town of St. Paul’s vacant council seat say they are ready to defend their views at an all candidates forum on Jan. 4, 7 p.m., at the Multi-Purpose Room at the Rec. Centre.
The St. Paul and District Chamber of Commerce stepped up to host the forum with assistance from the St. Paul Journal. Candidates will have five minutes to present opening remarks. A moderator will host the hour long question period, with audience members invited to address any or all candidates.
It’s the Chamber’s place within a community to hold the election forum, noted executive director Rhea Labrie.
The four candidates, Roxanne Bergheim, Alice Herperger, Richard Lavoie and Norm Noel, shared views with the Journal that may be part of the forum on Jan. 4.
Both Noel and Herperger said they disagree with the Town’s decision to buy out the Associated Medical Centre but not the Brindawan Clinic, or other clinics.
Herperger called some council decisions “questionable.” She said she wants to know how the decision was made and said she does not understand why there was not more public consultation. She said she would like to see the buyout decision revisited and find out how council made the decision.
“I personally feel the decision is wrong. I think they should buy out both clinics.” She also questioned why the Town would not buy out the denture clinic. “Why is it just a select group of doctors?” she asked.
She also takes issue with the Town becoming a landlord at the Wellness Centre.
With the decision made and construction underway with too much invested to stop, Herperger accepts that the centre will happen, but said she would like to go back to the doctors and council to find “another way once this building is finished that we don’t have to be landlords.” She suggested the doctors could buy out the Town’s portion of the clinic and become the shareholders of their own building.
The Wellness Centre will help provide access to seniors and disabled people and he supports it 100 per cent, Noel said. Recognizing the decision has been made and the centre is under construction, Noel said he could still voice his disagreement with the buyout decision.
“To go and start picking and choosing who you are going to invite to your facility by funding them to come over is not right,” he said.
In the long-term, Noel would like to see it turned over to an association and become a private facility. “There’s a lot of great ideas out there, but at the end of the day, it’s a burden back to the taxpayer.”
“For a candidate who has not sat around the table … it’s difficult to make a comment,” said Lavoie.
Lavoie supports the Wellness Centre concept. Calling the centre a “big step forward to attract and maintain doctors and all types of health services,” municipally owned medical facilities will become more common, he said. “You have to provide a product for doctors to come and stay in your community.”
“You’re not going to get a private sector to come in and build a large clinic,” he said. “This seems to be the way of the future.”
Bergheim supports the buyout decision and said the centre could be a model for future clinics.
“We need to concentrate on moving forward and making sure that the Wellness Centre is a success, and make sure we get as many services as we can in there so it is viable and that there is a return on the Town and County’s investment,” Bergheim said. “I don’t see any negatives with it.”
Generally, some doctors own their own building while others do not, she added. She noted all physicians going into the centre will pay rent and said both renting space in or owning a building has a cost associated with operating a practice. She said she is aware of similar government owned clinics.
“The government’s going to have an eye on this clinic and see how it goes,” she said. The community owned building is a “great invitation to physicians to come to this town.”
For candidates’ views on downtown revitalization and panhandling problems in St. Paul, see next week’s Journal.
