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Île Perrot mayors push for construction of off-island hospital
They are asking residents to vice their support
Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Pincourt Mayor Yvan Cardinal. (Gazette file photo)
Residents of Île Perrot are being asked to support a call from the island’s four mayors and the area’s health and social services network for construction of a hospital in the off-island territory west of Montreal.
All four mayors on the island of Île Perrot – Marie-Claude Nichols of Notre Dame de l’Île Perrot, Manon Trudel of Terrasse-Vaudreuil, Marc Roy of Île Perrot and Yvan Cardinal of Pincourt – are asking residents to fill out a form that was included with their annual tax statements urging the Quebec government to choose the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area for the construction of a much-needed off-island hospital.
“Together, let’s make it a reality!” states the form that residents are asked to fill out and return to marked boxes in town halls, municipal libraries and community centres. It continues: “I fully support the CSSS de Vaudreuil-Soulanges in its efforts to create, in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the CSSS de Vaudreuil-Soulanges Hospital.”
As well, the mayors, along with the CSSS Vaudreuil-Soulanges, the area’s health and social services centre, have also been pushing for the establishment of an ambulatory medical centre in the region.
CSSS spokesman Normand Brasseur said construction of a medical centre would not negate the need for a hospital.
The medical centre could be built first and would be complimentary to the hospital, according to Brasseur, who was part of the a news conference Friday with the four Île Perrot mayors.
Earlier this year, Yves Bolduc, Minister of Health and Social Services, said a visit to the region convinced him that the booming population has made building an ambulatory medical centre in the region a priority. Though he would not commit to a specific date, Bolduc said at the time he would like to see shovels in the ground within the next few years.
Later, Bolduc also said the hospital is necessary in the off-island area, which now has a population of about 135,000 and is expected to reach 175,000 by 2016.
Local MNAs Yvon Marcoux and Lucie Charlebois have also lent their support to the idea of building a hospital in the area.
“In all of Quebec, we are the only territory with a population of more than 120,000 that has no hospital,” Marcoux said.
A new hospital will not only help ease overcrowding at the Lakeshore General and the Valleyfield hospital, Centre de santé et des services sociaux du Suroit, but would also serve to attract doctors to the region.
How will it be funded ?
I recevied the form but it made no mention as to how it would be funded, and what financial burden it would carry to the residents associated with the building of the hospital.
I think it sounds like a worthwhile idea but I shouldn't be asked to sponsor a program of this nautre without being informaed as to its overall affect on the taxpayers, verus the benefits.
why not make the form
why not make the form available online somewhere?