What is Health Renfrew?
Or just as importantly, who is Health Renfrew? Is there even a “who” in Health Renfrew? Instead of bodies sitting around a board room table, is it only a chequing account?
As officially as I can find out at present — and admittedly I haven’t really looked all that hard yet — It’s an adjunct board of the Renfrew Victoria Hospital, or RVH. For the longest of times, it apparently existed as some sort of shadow entity with some sort of financial affiliation with its larger parent, RVH. In recent times, however, the spotlight of accountability has fallen upon it more intensely and it looks like there might be hell to pay.
What kind of hell? And for what sins did we end up here?
I’ll be honest, I’ve made several attempts, albeit not with the professional vigour of an experienced investigator, to find out exactly who sits on this board, or with this organization, if in fact it’s that kind of board at all, with real people and real names. Top hospital administrators are not hard to find, but it seems to get more nebulous when nit comes to identifying anyone else who might be seated at the table. For the sake of thoroughness, I believe this to be an important component to the discussion. If there is such am entity, what names are attached to it?
If somebody were to receive an interest-free loan from this organization, I’d like to know who that was and what the rationale might have been for that. Not as a taxpayer of Renfrew, but as a taxpayer of the Province of Ontario.
So far as I can determine from other public sources, RVH was reporting operational surpluses at a time where such things were difficult to attain in the industry, much less any industry. Other hospitals in the area, like Arnprior and Pembroke, were likely flabbergasted at how Renfrew could pull off what they themselves might have struggled with. They my have started asking questions, although I don’t know that yet for sure.
The province grants every hospital money intended for primary care, meaning that the money is intended for operations that are directly connected with patient care, and nothing else. If other sources are to be believed, some of that money was diverted by RVH to an arms-length board or organization referred to as Health Renfrew. If so, the net effect would be that Renfrew would no longer show a surplus. This is important because any surplus funds intended for primary care are to be returned to the province if not used. This, of course, can be problematic, as what human being wants to give anything back once they’ve had it in their hands, and money is probably at the top of that list of things people like to hang on to.
Diverting it to an off-site board would have the effect of that money not appearing on the books for RVH, at least not as a surplus. So, the net effect is that, through Health Renfrew, RVH was able to keep that cash that otherwise would have been expected to be returned to the province.
The thing about the province is that it doesn’t like it when you do stuff like that to trick them. In fact, they don’t like it a lot. To the point where they step in with a caretaker administrator and put the current top dog on administrative leave, leading subsequently to that person’s possible early retirement.
So, back to the top, these questions need to be asked:
What is Health Renfrew? And who is Health Renfrew?
This is a big story in and of itself. Coming at around the same time as the Ma-Te-Way boondoggle, it almost gives the impression that there was a preponderance of shady dealings going on at two major sectors of Renfrew public life simultaneously. I can’t say that’s the case, but I also can’t rule it out, since there’s no shortage of folks out there with information that aren’t terribly interested in sharing it with a fellow like myself. I can understand that, especially if it brings certain individuals under the glare of scrutiny, a glare that may not illuminate them in the best possible light.
But there’s that accountability thing again, troublesome as it can be, but still a foundation of the administration of our important public institutions.
People have a right to know. They have a right to ask questions. There’s absolutely nothing wrong, or vexatious, about wanting to know what happened, why it happened, and who had a paddle in the canoe. If there’s something to hide, then usually that’s an indicator of something untoward has taken place, and that’s the point behind the scrutiny, to make sure that things run the way they’re intended to.
I think interest-free loans extended to a person or persons with public money are an example of that. The only thing that could make something like that worse is that the loan was extended with interest, where the diverted public money was used to make even more money.
Or perhaps building infrastructure, then renting it out.
It would be akin to taking public money and investing it to make more. On surface, it may even sound like a good idea, even a practical one.
But to the province, and by extension you, it can come across as investing money that’s not yours to invest.
Sometimes, when covering and commenting on public Renfrew topics, I feel like a cat when someone with a laser pointer dances it on the carpet in front of me. Or like a kid playing whack-a-mole at the Fair.
When you look here, it’s happening there, and when you look there, it’s happening here.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 