Medicine Hat, AB – In Medicine Hat, there are about 26,000 residents over the age of 50.
Which makes those people eligible for memberships to the seniors centre – the Veiner and Strathcona Centres.
Despite that, there are currently just 1,100 of those who pay for memberships.
“That’s a large portion of the population that we know we’re not even coming close to offering services to in the Veiner Centre,” said Councillor Julie Friesen. “We’re just not reaching the people and there’s so much potential of what we could do.”
That’s why a review of what should be offered at the centres and who should operate them was presented at Tuesday’s public services committee meeting.
With an annual cost of $1.42 million to operate the centres, they looked into ways of better servicing the community and cutting costs.
Most of the funding comes from taxes and the Family and Community Support Services funding, which is a funding partnership between the provincial government and participating municipalities.
The committee was asked to approve a study done by administrators, which made the recommendations to conduct a consultation asking citizens what they want to be offered at the centres and to put out tenders for a new operator to take over.
Members of the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee were very excited about the public consultation, agreeing that the centres are underused at just over four per cent.
“We believe that there needs to be a survey of our community to find out which services and programs would be attractive to people who are not just seniors, but other members of the community who could use the Venier Centre,” said Les Pearson, who sits on the committee.
They are extremely nervous about a new operator though.
“In the past the city council has been very generous. They provided us with a new facility and they provided us with reasonable costs,” Pearson continued. “But at the same time, a request for proposal means that there’s going to be some kind of operator that would come in and take over the operation of the facility. And that’s a little bit frightening for us because we don’t know what that could mean.”
The committee’s chair, Laverne Noble, says she is also apprehensive about a new operator.
“Quality of life has to be considered. Sometimes we all get too wrapped up in finical responsibility. And we forget that part of the job of running a city is the quality of life of the citizens.”
Friesen says she’s extremely sympathetic to their apprehension.
She says that she is open to bids from potential operators so that the services could expand, but was firm it would have to be the absolute right bid.
“We’ll take a look and say, and there might not even be any, do any of these meet what we’re really seeking here. And if not, we say no,” Friesen explained.
The recommendations will be taken to city council on October 21st.
