NEWS PHOTO GILLIAN SLADE Public services commissioner Brian Mastel addresses seniors at the Veiner Centre on Wednesday, explaining the process of achieving a different operating model for the seniors' centre.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
A request for proposals will be released this spring for organizations to operate the Veiner Centre.
Public services commissioner Brian Mastel says the city will also develop a proposal to compare with those submitted in response to the RFP.
He said while “it could be the city” chosen, operations can be more nimble in the private sector and they have opportunities to generate revenue that the city does not have access to.
At a Senior Citizens Advisory Committee annual general meeting Wednesday, Mastel told the audience there is less than four per cent of about 26,000 qualified local residents are members of the Veiner Centre.
There has been a consultation phase to gather information on what current members and future ones would like to see.
Mastel says there was “a lot of passion and interest.” The city is in the process of looking at a range of perspectives.
Last fall the city began the process of looking at a multi-service model for seniors services. Two community consultations were held to gather information on services that would best meet the needs of seniors.
At a public services committee meeting in October, Mastel said 25 per cent of the seniors’ centre budget was earned revenue, 42 per cent family and community support services (provincial funding distributed at the municipal level) and 33 per cent from taxes. He said Medicine Hat has higher operating costs compared to other communities with seniors’ centres. The goal is to achieve long-term sustainability and minimize the financial contribution of the municipality.
The annual cost of operating the Veiner and Strathcona Centres is $1.42 million.
Aaron Nelson, manager of community connections and support, has already stated that the budget does not include the cost of the portion of the Strathcona Centre used for the swimming pool and related facilities in the building. He also said it does not include the cost of offices used at the Veiner Centre that have nothing to do with seniors.
Mayor Ted Clugston addressed the meeting, pointing out he has recently been made aware of a concerning statistic, that there are a couple thousand local people affected or impacted by elder abuse.
“This (the Veiner Centre) is a safe place,” said Clugston.
SCAC chair LaVerne Noble said the elder abuse situation is a big concern and there will be a focus this year on looking at ways to address this. A committee made a presentation to city council on Tuesday evening about this.
Noble said it had been a busy year for SCAC with a large portion of time spent organizing, operating and finalizing details related to the Alberta 55-plus Games.
There are always 10 SCAC members. Each year five reach the end of their two-year term. Some were not running for re-election and there were six candidates standing for the five positions.
The 10 committee members now are: LaVerne Noble, Allan Bloomfield, Sue Masterman, Rachelle Bistrezan Sue Higgins, Pat Dietrich, Don Borrowman, Lori Karwandy, Sam Montoya and Gordon Nott.
