The City of Kenora is being asked to cough up a little more for health care recruitment.
The city is currently one of six partners in the Kenora Area Physician Recruitment Committee.
Ray Racette is president and CEO of Lake of the Woods District Hospital and a member of the committee, and he says they need the extra money to be able to compete with other jurisdictions.
“Our spending within professional recruitment is about $150,000 a year,” Racette told city council during his budget presentation for the Kenora Area Physician Recruitment Committee.
“We’re self-funding it out of our partner contributions. We’re asking the city to city to consider an increase of their current contribution, which is $25,000. We’re asking if the city would consider an increase by $15,000.”
Racette says they are able to offer modest incentives, but they would like to do more in order to compete.
“We offer re-location assistance…$4,000. We offer a subsidy for some local entertainment in different things…recreation and so on with in the community. So they can do that. So those are just some little things we do, over and above the other things we do in terms of our engagement.”
He adds they are asking all of their six partners for a similar increase in funding, including the hospital.