L'ARDOISE - A longtime medical centre in this Richmond County community is will receive $3,000 in emergency funding that the centre's board chair requested of Richmond Municipal Council to get through a difficult winter.

March's regular monthly council meeting in Arichat saw councillors vote 3-1 in favour of a motion from the Committee of the Whole meeting held two weeks earlier. As a result, the county will supply the emergency funding requested by the Dr. William B. Kingston Memorial Community Health Centre to combat rising costs that have come as a result of the L'Ardoise-based clinic losing one of its two regular physicians at this time last year. 

Speaking to March's Committee of the Whole meeting, Kingston Centre board chair Juanita Mombourquette told municipal councillors that the departure of a physician last March resulted in a monthly reduction of $3,000 from the rental fees that the centre would normally collect from a general practitioner that keeps regular hours at the facility.

As a result, according to Mombourquette, Kingston Centre officials were forced to spend $30,000 from a community-based fund that was designed for building maintenance and emergency repairs, and the centre has been forced to stop seeking provincial and federal grants for everything from seniors' programs to specialized medical outreach, since a sudden stoppage in operations could force these programs to abruptly end. 

The lone councillor voting against the emergency funding, District Three's Melanie Sampson, stressed that she is not opposed to assistance to the Kingston Centre but feels that council should take more time to examine whether such a request fits within its municipal budget for the coming fiscal year. 

Following the March 22 meeting, Warden Amanda Mombourquette stressed that the Kingston Centre's request was a unique case from a health centre used by ratepayers across Richmond County, and added that the motion was not an invitation for community groups to bombard the municipality with similar requests.