It appears Cassellholme is one step closer to becoming a Not For Profit.
Chris Mayne, a city councillor and chair of the Casselholme board says they will be accepting a subcommittee report today that they have voted unanimously to support the proposed board move to Not For Profit.
“The Board will also be accepting (but not voting on) some of the committees recommendations that Casselholme consider moving to NFP as soon as January 2017 - which the Board will consider but final approval of the move to NFP rests with the detailed business case that is still being worked on by senior management,” Mayne stated in an email to BayToday.ca this morning.
While union officials felt today's vote was critical, Mayne disagrees, stating simply that today’s vote by the board was simply to accept the report and any recommendations of the municipal sub committee.
"It’s not a final, binding vote by any means, it’s really just accepting their report and recommendations and at the end of the day Casselholme absolutely is still going to be a public facility funded by the province of Ontario," he said.
"If we are successful to the move to Not For Profit, the only difference is long term, at the end of the transition period, the municipal funding partners are no longer there, and that’s really the difference."
Union officials representing the workers at the facility have made their voice loud and clear that they aren’t interested in working under the new model.
“Do the right thing and vote to keep Casselholme public,” CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn stated in a CUPE release sent out today.
Hahn believes the board is locked in to thinking changing to a private corporation without municipal control is the only option.
“This is promoted by some with a specific agenda that is not in the best interest of vulnerable, older residents of the Nipissing community,” said Fred Hahn.
The Cassellholme board paid KPMG Advisory Services $30,000 to carry out a financial and governance analysis report last summer, which indicated that moving the home to a non-profit model would result in substantial savings for the partnering municipalities.
But back in April, a CUPE release accused the member municipalities of “secret dealings with consultants and closed door votes,” and claimed their requests for information were met with “radio silence.”
Hahn has noted that switching to a non-profit model would put the home at the whims of provincial government funding, presenting unique financial challenges that he argued usually result in reducing the number of direct hands-on hours, staffing cuts and contracting food supply, for example.
