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No need to worry, mayor reassures
Mac Olsen
for South Peace News
Different views on the status of the High Prairie Hospital’s construction sparked a heated debate between George Keay and High Prairie Mayor Rick Dumont at council’s May 13 meeting.
The debate reached a boiling point when Dumont told Keay if he knew information regarding costs, he wouldn’t tell him anyway.
Keay, who says he attended as a private citizen, opened debate.
“From the town’s perspective, what’s happening with our health facility?” he asked.
Dumont replied he is in contact with the ministers involved with the project. He added Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pearl Calahasen has set up an advisory committee to provide recommendations to the super health board.
And, he told Keay he has not heard anything negative about the hospital construction and remains positive the money is in place.
“When I hear something different, I’ll let you people know,” said Dumont, adding he is confident the hospital will be built.
“Well, I have some concerns,” Keay replied. “The government allocated us $40 million over three years, but the projected cost of that facility is $110 million, or thereabouts.”
Dumont said the figure is “out of whack” but Keay remained steadfast.
“Has anybody done anything to get the government to get some real numbers here?” he asked.
“I’m sure they’re working on getting the right numbers in place,” said Dumont. “Do I have any inside information on those numbers? No. If I did, I wouldn’t share them with you, anyway.”
Keay asked why. Dumont said he wouldn’t at this time, which made Keay laugh.
“I find it funny that, as elected officials, you wouldn’t share information with the public, on a facility that’s supposed to be public,” Keay responded. “Why are you guys privileged to this information? I’ve been working on this project for six ... years.”
“So have I,” Dumont replied.
“I don’t think so,” Keay retorted. “Because you weren’t on the committees, you weren’t involved.”
Dumont disagreed.
“I was in Edmonton and I’m involved in everything that’s been going on with this facility," said Dumont.
“For how long?” Keay asked.
“The last six years, at least,” Dumont replied.
“Well, it seems that I never saw you there, Rick. I don’t want to argue with you about it, but I didn’t see you there,” Keay said.
Keay is concerned another construction season will be missed.
“So I want to know if there’s anything we could do as a community to expedite this thing,” Keay asked.
Keep lobbying, Dumont said.
“What else do you want to do? Get your shovel out and start construction yourself?” he asked.
Councillor David Vanderwell asked Keay what would convince him construction would proceed.
“They’re going to replan, (but) this is just a stall tactic,” said Keay. “As a community, I don’t think we can afford to be stalled anymore. We’ve been stalled for two years now.”
Vanderwell said he appreciates Keay’s comments, but added Dumont is doing what he can to lobby the government.
“They can stall indefinitely, anyhow,” said Vanderwell. “I don’t know what we can do differently than what we are doing now, (but) I’m willing to look at ideas.”
Dumont said he is not the only employee or representative for High Prairie. He turned to councillors and said, “Each one of you has the same responsibility to lobby as hard as (you) can, too.”
Dumont then asked Councillor Jeff Burgar what he has done to lobby for the hospital.
“You told me everything was fine,” Burgar responded.
“I still believe it is,” said Dumont. “But does that stop me from promoting High Prairie and lobbying? It’s not just me.”
“If somebody tells me everything is fine, I’m not going to stick my nose in and upset the apple cart,” said Burgar. “If it’s not fine, I will stick my nose in it.”
Dumont reiterated everything is fine.
“Well, don’t see any construction out there,” replied Burgar.
Keay also discussed his concerns about the retendering of the construction work. Keay says he asked Calahasen if the retendering process was going to start soon and she said no.
“No, it is not,” said Keay. “Nothing is going to happen until this new committee gets something organized. Well, (it will be) 2010 before anything is going to happen. That’s a plain, simple fact.”
Dumont replied council would know more once the committee has been formed and starts making recommendations.
Councillor Wilfred Willier said no time limit has been set for the review, but Keay disagreed.
“The review on our health facility was supposed to have been done within 30 days of the budget coming out. I’m talking about our facility and my comment to our MLA was, ‘That would be a first for government if they ever moved that fast.’”
Budget day in Alberta was April 7. In fact, it has already been 36 days since the budget was tabled in the Legislature giving weight to Keay’s claim the committee is still not in place, let alone met.
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