Tag Archives: Paul Collins

06.30.12
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And the new direction at STEGH is . . .?

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Here’s your hat, there’s the door. That’s much the fashion in which Allan Weatherall was bounced from his position Wednesday as hospital foundation executive director.
The announcement from foundation board president Susan O’Brien couldn’t have been more terse.
“The board is seeking leadership that will fit with the future direction of the foundation.”
When O’Brien and CEO Paul Collins were asked specifically what this new direction is, both were vague at best.
“The foundation board still anticipates a major capital campaign,” advised Collins. “This is all connected to the re-scoped exercise that we are working on with the Ministry of Health and we’re hoping that we have that project.”

Allan Weatherall

Sounds like plenty of doubt and no clear direction on the campaign compass.
Do you think the beginning of the end for Weatherall was his personal email to Ald. Sam Yusuf back in April in which the executive director expressed disappointment the city had no plans to put aside hospital redevelopment funds in its Part 2 capital budget?
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06.16.12
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Thank goodness they only lost some money

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It seems like just yesterday that Ald. Gord Campbell made this observation regarding Ascent, formerly St. Thomas Holdings Inc.
“I can’t support this recommendation. St. Thomas Holdings had a difficult year, lost some money.”
Campbell was referring to a council vote a month or so ago on whether the Ascent board of directors should receive a hike in remuneration. Board members currently receive in the neighbourhood of $8,500 for attending 10 or so meetings a year and then chairman, Ald. Tom Johnston, was seeking an unspecified increase in that compensation.
Thankfully, council was united in deep-sixing the motion.
But, when Campbell notes they “lost some money,” how much might that be?
Lots.
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06.02.12
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A waiting game at STEGH while government backtracks

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It’s been all quiet on the STEGH re-scoping front of late so time for an update courtesy of hospital CEO Paul Collins, in the form of a personal message sent to his “colleagues.”
Collins advises, “At the time of my last update to you on April 19th we were meeting with the Ministry Capital Branch in Toronto to discuss our STEGH project “re-scoping” approach. Our discussion with them focused on reducing the over-all cost of our project.”
Cost savings can be achieved by possibly eliminating some elements, like new hallways for movement through the existing buildings and reducing the size of new areas like the emergency department and mental health, while maintaining ministry planning and space standards, Collins suggests.

“These changes are possible only because since submitting the original plan in 2009, we have learned a great deal about how to plan and use space better,” he suggests.
“We have continued to work with the ministry on our “interim” plan to demolish the Snell building, move Ambulatory care from the first floor west wing to ground floor CCC and renovate the vacated first floor west wing, all to accommodate the new Mental Health program in this temporary space, beginning 2013.”
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04.21.12
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Rescoping? Beats me, insists former MPP Steve Peters

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Watch for the matter of a new home for Elgin St. Thomas Public Health to heat up dramatically in the coming days.
The health unit has been out of the public spotlight of late and that’s not a bad thing after the drama and controversy that dogged the previous board of directors.
The new board, including Elgin Warden Bill Walters and St. Thomas Ald. Dave Warden, has got the organization focused on moving forward.
However, will it withstand the fallout from a forthcoming announcement on a move from its current digs at 99 Edward St. to a two-acre site that is not the west Talbot Street property owned by Shmuel Farhi?
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04.14.12
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Why does this promise come with a bitter after-taste?

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Re-scope is a word that was totally alien to the average vocabulary prior to delivery of the provincial budget at the end of March.
In the days afterward, the administration at St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital, our elected representatives and area residents puzzled over the implications of re-scoping on the hospital’s redevelopment plans.
Well, puzzle no longer.
This corner has determined the definition of re-scope as follows: the massive slashing of funding for a project promised just weeks before an election when the electorate doesn’t deliver.
And we mean ruthless cutting and hacking.
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04.07.12
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Hey, I was just trying to be helpful!

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The Oopsie of the Week award winner is no contest as Ald. Sam Yusuf’s decision to forward a personal email from the executive-director of the St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital Foundation on to all members of council proved to be somewhat embarrassing, especially to its author, Allan Weatherall.
While Weatherall asserts, after the fact, there was no ill intent in his correspondence to Yusuf, the Times-Journal has obtained a copy of the email and it definitely has a sucker-punch quality to it.
He is miffed the city will not put aside hospital funding in the 2012 city budget.
“That is not forward thinking at all as the hospital will in some form, in some way need rebuilding. So why does the city not set some money aside to be ready for a time when it will be required? That is true community leadership and forward thinking, being proactive and not reactive.”
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03.31.12
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Oh, that’s the way we’ve always done things

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It’s no longer business as usual at city hall, asserts Ald. Gord Campbell.
“Or, this is the way we’ve always done it,” continues the chairman of the city’s personnel and labour relations committee.
“We’re taking a look at everything – the departments, departmental structure and not just to save money, but to make things more efficient and to improve the system.”
City Scope contacted Ald. Campbell after learning deputy clerk Rick Beachey had been laid off earlier this week.
The re-structuring is the brainchild of CAO Wendell Graves, whom Campbell praised for the initiative.
The purpose of the exercise is not to get rid of people, Campbell stressed.
“The purpose of the exercise is simply to make things more efficient. And to look at everything. I don’t know how many outside contracts we have, and you say something to someone and they say: ‘Oh, that’s the way we’ve always done that.’ Well wait a minute, things have changed over the last 20 years.”
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01.21.12
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Putting transparency to the test at city open house

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After decades of dawdling, similar in process to the consoldiated courthouse project finally underway, an open house will be held 5 p.m. Wednesday at city hall to unveil plans and cost of the new police headquarters.
The long-awaited home of the police service is to located on city-owned land adjacent to the Timken Centre.
Ald. Dave Warden, chairman of the new building committee, says it’s an occasion to not only inform ratepayers, but demonstrate “the transparency of everything that’s going on,” and attach a price tag to the project.
Warden continues: “We’ll lay to rest all the rumours and everything else there is about the police building. We’ll have the actual cost.”
Nowhere near the $30 million sticker price being promoted by one member of council.
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01.14.12
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A loss in the courtroom, a positive outcome at the polls

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He was the central figure in one of the shabbiest chapters in this city’s political history.
Days prior to the 2010 municipal election, David McGee, owner of the Sutherland Press building, announced he was suing the City of St. Thomas, former mayor Cliff Barwick, St. Thomas police and other defendants for $3 million.
    At the time, McGee insisted his motive was not political — even though he sent out a press release and employed an automated phone dialer to leave voice mail messages for St. Thomas households.

Sutherland Press building in 2008, prior to partial demolition of front face

He also hired PR consultant Suzanne van Bommel, a local political strategist.
   In a 32-page statement of claim, McGee and Sutherland Lofts Inc., were suing for punitive damages and aggravated damages, as well as “mental distress, economic interference and, specifically, loss of income” for what the claim states was “unnecessary demolition” in July 2008.
Well, Justice L.C. Leitch handed down a decision just prior to Christmas.

As to the matter of whether the claim of Sutherland Lofts Inc., be stayed or dismissed on the ground that it was without legal capacity to commence the action, Justice Leitch determined the claim must be dismissed because the limitation period had expired.
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