Meeting notes from Tuesday, November 23
Brantford Public Library Board – Southwest Community Centre
The first item on the agenda was a brief discussion surrounding the Brantford Public Library Board – Southwest Community Centre. Councillor Jan Vanderstelt spoke to the matter.
“I’ve been working alone on solving this long-standing problem in the ward of not having a place to meet so I’m going to ask for your continued support in this area. The library works as a community hub and a community centre and people came in for so many different reasons to the library for all of the help and services they provide,” said Councillor Vanderstelt. “I understand that is a 1,300 square foot plan for development of a library branch in the southwest with a sister plan for north of Hwy. 402 at some point where we’re looking for advanced approval so that we can go ahead and put a library up there eventually.”
Vanderstelt continued, “The most important thing for our residents in our ward is to realize and understand is that we don’t have a place to meet for any of our community meetings, any of our ward meetings, and any of the neighbourhood association meetings without having to appeal to existing places and existing spaces. I’m again asking for your support on this because, as you know, that section of ward one is growing exponentially, it continues to grow and we need your support out there.”
There was no other discussion so council voted on a motion that stated, “That the City endorse the inclusion of the library portion in the project and that City staff be authorized to sign a letter of intent jointly with the library to the Grand Erie District School Board to indicate the intent to continue to pursue a shared facility in the southwest and that City staff be directed to work with library staff on the development of a new library branch in the Southwest Community Centre. The motion was carried, 8-1, with Councillor Richard Carpenter opposed.
Endorsement of Additional Long Term Care Beds at John Noble Home
The final item on the agenda was a discussion regarding the endorsement of additional long term care beds at John Noble Home.
The discussion began with Councillor Carpenter putting an amendment to the motion on the floor.
“My amendment is that item 12.2.9 Clause A be amended to include for ‘40 long term care beds.’ At the John Noble Home board, we were looking at building a 20-bed facility, which was for those with severe dementia that have no place to go except out of town. It’s a specific design that was approved by the province, and the province did a call-out for more beds so we thought it prudent to extend and build on top of the same footprint and add 20 more beds,” said Carpenter. “The 20 beds will be for those patients that are the most difficult, the ones that are in hospital now, either on dialysis or on trachs. This will really relieve the load on the hospital itself and huge costs per day for seniors in the hospital. We will provide a space for them at John Noble Home with the 20 beds and it will make the whole facility much more cost effective.”
Councillor John Sless shared his thoughts on the amended motion.
“I was pleased to support this as it has been a number of years that we’ve been trying to expand the John Noble Home back when I chaired it back in the 90’s. We were looking at ways to accommodate more people and the emphasis on the expansion was just solidified with the pandemic. I think it was very highly displayed to us that not-for-profit housing for seniors was far superior than for-profit and I think this gives us another 40 not-for-profit beds in our city for folks to call home in long-term care. It’s much need and these are difficult folks to look after and I think if anybody can do it then it would be our folks at John Noble Home,” said Sless.
Sless continued, “I hope the province supports our application and I believe they certainly should because we’re not asking for a lot, we are asking for 40 beds. I would hope everybody would be unanimous because I think it would carry a lot of weight down in Queen’s Park.”
There was some more discussion then council voted on Councillor Carpenter’s amendment. The vote was carried unanimously, 9-0.
There was no discussion regarding the resolution as amended so council voted on the motion, which stated, that the City of Brantford endorse the addition of the 40 long term care beds and supports the Committee of Management and JHN staff in the next steps in the process; and That City staff be directed to seek information from the JNH staff related to the new build specifically around capital and operating cost; and That Committee of Management and JNH staff be requested to provide updates on the progress of the additional beds within Bell Court.
The motion was carried unanimously, 9-0.
