by Niki Luymes
In order to encourage physician recruitment, the Edson town council voted to reduce the lease fee for the Edson Medical Centre. Currently the town charges $137,000 as part of the Medical Centre lease. The motion proposes to reduce that number to $0, for the next 5 years.
While a majority of the discussion took place in-camera due to FOIP, a few comments were made when council returned to the public meeting portion, before the official vote.
Councillor Krystal Cacka, who chairs the Physician Recruitment and Retention committee, spoke about the motion. “We [the committee] have been trying to find a way to position our region in a competitive and desirable fashion so that we do not find ourselves in the situation of desperation that other communities in Canada currently find themselves. So this would be very helpful towards that assessment.”
Mayor Kevin Zahara added, “This is our Town Council taking a stance in supporting our physicians, our medical community, and our community as a whole. We realize that healthcare is in a bit of a shambles in our province, and throughout the country, so we are stepping outside of our lane here. This will hopefully provide some stability to physicians that are currently here, as well as those that are currently looking to move to our community.”
Councillor Cacka made the motion for Council to direct that the lease for the Medical Centre Corporation be reduced from $137,000 to $0 for the next 5 years, as of April 1, 2025. Council voted unanimously in favour of the motion.
