By DAVID JANZEN Staff Writer

It’s a new year, but it’s the same old concerns. Welland council sat for the first time in the new year on Jan. 19. Medicare, both in Welland and in the region, was a focus point on the agenda.  

Barry Sharpe Submitted Photo

Castonugay was joined by the centre’s architect, Raffaele Belvedere, who was asking council to make changes to land use designations to accommodate the construction that is going on. The centre will be open to the French-speaking population in south Niagara and will provide, among other services, primary health care, prenatal services and nutrition and dietary services.

Councillor Rocky Letourneau said the three-storey brick building will “bring a whole new look to that end of town.” Council approved the changes to the site. In 2005 the centre had 5,000 individual consultations, said Castonugay, and in 2009 the number rose to 21,000.

“We’ve gone from 600 patients in Welland to about 2,400,” he said. Centre de Santé has other sites in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Port Colborne. Community healthcare providers such as Centre de Santé help alleviate the strain put on the Niagara Health System (NHS). However, Coun. Frank Campion isn’t happy with how the NHS is going about its business.

“We’d like to see some changes,” he said. The NHS has a deficit of $18 million, the largest in Ontario, and “wait times at all of the hospitals in the NHS are far above the provincial benchmarks that have been set,” said Coun. Barry Sharpe.

Two motions that Campion made were unanimously supported by council: to join Niagara Falls city council in a call for a formal investigation of the NHS and to form a standing committee to address healthcare issues. “Our only option is to go to the top, which is the provincial government,” Campion said.

The NHS is holding a financial forum Feb. 10 at the McBain Centre in Niagara Falls in the Coronation Room from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.