Jeff Green | Oct 29, 2015


Betty Hunter and Ernest Lapchinski, members of Northbrook-based Pine Meadow Nursing Home's management board, appeared before Frontenac County Council on October 21, seeking financial support for new windows at the home.

Pine Meadow Nursing Home, a 60-bed long term care facility, is located in Addington Highlands Township, County of Lennox and Addington, but up to 50% of its residents at any given time come to the home from North and Central Frontenac, Ernest Lapchinski pointed out.

Over the years representatives from the home have made numerous presentations to Frontenac County seeking funding, mostly for the major renovation and upgrade to Pine Meadow that was completed in 2014.

“L&A County put in $250,000 over 10 years, and Addington Highlands waived the building fees for the project, but Frontenac County declined several requests for support,” said Betty Hunter.

Frontenac County operates the municipally owned Fairmount Home. In rejecting annual requests for funding, successive Frontenac County Councils argued that maintaining Fairmount is already a burden for county ratepayers, and satisfies the legislative requirement that the county pay into the long term care system in Ontario.

There is a precedent for the county to support capital projects for health care institutions outside of its jurisdiction, however. The budget includes a 10-year commitment of $25,000 per year towards capital upgrades to Kingston General Hospital.

“What we are looking for today is funding support for the replacement of 11 bay windows in the original Pine Meadow building, which was built in 1993 to standards that are not what they are today. The new section of the building is up to those standards, but there are still challenges in the original building. The repair is extensive since it includes the supports, and the cost is $13,530 per window plus HST, about $165,000, which would be about $25,000 per year for seven years from Frontenac County,” said Betty Hunter. “It is a matter of some urgency.”

“The home operates within the funding envelope provided by the Ministry of Health,” said Ernest Lapchinski, “and we manage our operations within budget and have always done so, but since the home is owned by the Land O'Lakes Community Services, which has its own funding challenges, there is nowhere to turn except fund raising and grants for capital projects such as this one.”

“For years Pine Meadow has been coming to us looking for money. Council needs to find some niche to allocate money to this building, which is important to our residents in the North. We have to find an envelope to pull that money from; that is our challenge,” said North Frontenac councilor, John Inglis.

“May I point out there is no long-term facility in Frontenac County,” said Betty Hunter, referring to the fact that Fairmount Home, although county-owned, is located within the City of Kingston,

“I would try to see us do something; when it comes to budget time, I will be supporting this,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith.

While Pine Meadow (60 beds) and Fairmount Home (128 beds) receive money from the Ministry of Long Term Care according to the same funding formula, and also charge resident fees, as a municipally owned home, Fairmount receives an additional $2.6 million from municipal sources. Of that money, $1.7 million comes from the City of Kingston and $900,000 from Frontenac County. The total operating budget for Fairmount Home in 2015 is $11.6 million.

The discrepancy in funding has been brought up at Frontenac County Council in the past, particularly under the late warden Bud Clayton, who coincidentally also chaired the Pine Meadow Management Committee.

Steve Silver, the interim administrator of Fairmount Home, said recently that care staff tend to be paid more at municipal homes as compared to the not-for-profit sector, based on how arbitration hearings tend to settle contract disputes between unions and management in the municipal sector.

Silver, along with Chef Administrative Officer Kelly Pender and Councilor John Inglis, are visiting Pine Meadow this week to get a first hand look at the operation and its finances. They will also be paying a similar visit to Rideaucrest Home, which is another municipally owned home in the City of Kingston.

Frontenac County will be entering budget deliberations for 2016 on November 12, when the draft budget will be tabled by staff.

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