Yarmouth municipal councillors vote on a funding request at a special meeting on thursday July 4. -Y95 News photo)
Council for the Municipality of the District of Yarmouth (MODY) unanimously approved a funding request from the Yarmouth and Area Chamber of Commerce (YACC) for a Community Navigator position to focus on recruiting and retaining new physicians.
The Chamber made a revised presentation to council at a special meeting Thursday night and the approval was given for $20,000 over three years.
It was contingent on new conditions set out by council. YACC president Angie Greene explains.
“The amendments that they made were just for semi-annual reporting of the position. We appreciate the extra time and effort that they made in meeting with us special tonight and we appreciate all the extra questions because we are taxpayers ourselves and we understand where they’re coming from.”
The Town of Yarmouth and the Municipality of Argyle have already approved the same funding formula.
The YACC also received funding for the position, in the form of grants, from Doctors Nova Scotia and is waiting for word on a request made to the Yarmouth Hospital Foundation.
Councillors had lots of questions for the YACC’s Angie Greene and Rick Allwright.
Warden Leland Anthony says they wanted to make sure that taxpayers dollars were being wisely invested.
“Yes, everything we had that we questioned them on, they were able to satisfy our queries. Their oversight committee, we’re comfortable with that.”
Anthony says the council supports the project but criticized the province its $75,000 over three years it announced last week saying the government should be paying all the costs of the position.
Angie Greene says says the Community Navigator used to be a provincially-funded position but has not been filled for 5 years.
“We’re coming at that we need to pull up our socks up and do it ourselves and prove to the province that this needs to be funded as part of the healkth care system.’
Greene says someone from the community knows best how to promote itself, not someone from Bridgewater or Kentville.
The Committee of the Whole paused live-streaming of the meeting last night to go in-camera to ask questions about who sits on the committee
charged with vetting the Community Navigator position.
Afterwards the Committee of the Whole meeting was adjourned and a regular council meeting was called and the vote was taken approving the funding request.
