The Blue Mountains council is interested in talking about future long-term care options with its neighbours.
At its meeting on May 29, The Blue Mountains council expressed interest in a Grey Highlands-led initiative to re-establish a working group of local lower-tier municipalities to discuss the future of long-term care and specifically the Grey County-owned Grey Gables home in Markdale.
Early in May, Grey Highlands circulated draft terms of reference for the group to its neighbours in Meaford, Southgate, The Blue Mountains and Chatsworth.
The working group was in place several years ago, when the future of Grey Gables was in doubt. At the time, the county had planned to close and sell Grey Gables and transfer the long-term care beds to the Rockwood Terrace home in Durham. Since that time, both Grey Gables and Rockwood Terrace have received new long-term care bed allotments from the Ford government for expansion projects. Grey County is currently working on the Rockwood project, while a future expansion of Grey Gables remains in limbo.
Councillor Gail Ardiel said she had been a member of the working group in the past and said it was important to continue the conversations about long-term care.
“We thought we were advancing and then we weren’t. This working (group) was getting traction,” said Ardiel. “I would volunteer to sit on this, it is an important issue. We have (local) residents in long-term care at Grey Gables. We really need to be engaged in this.”
Council unanimously passed a resolution expressing interest in participating in the working group and requested more information from Grey Highlands.
