Mississauga hospital hires firm to push expansion funding
A deficit-plagued Mississauga hospital is spending up to $50,000 on lobbyists in a bid to convince the provincial government to bankroll its expansion plans.
David MacNaughton, Premier Dalton McGuinty’s former principal secretary, and Andrew Steele, a former senior advisor to the premier, are among five StrategyCorp Inc. lobbyists retained to make the pitch on behalf of Credit Valley Hospital (CVH).
Contacted by QMI Agency, Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews said she intends to take a close look at the hospital’s expenditure.
“A hospital CEO does not need a lobbyist to get in contact with me, my staff or my officials,” Matthews said Monday. “I don’t think they need them.”
The hospital is almost completely funded through tax dollars and those funds should be used on patient care, she said.
Hospital spokesperson Wendy Johnson said the lobbyists were hired to help “develop and implement a plan for The Credit Valley Hospital’s Phase III capital project that will support the growing needs of patients and families in Mississauga.”
Johnson said the hospital had also agreed to pay the same firm an undisclosed sum to do “community engagement” work on a 2010-2015 Strategic Plan approved by the board of directors last fall.
The company was helping the hospital reach out to patients, hospital staff, physicians and other community groups on the strategic plan.
Although that job was completed in June, Johnson said the hospital has not received the bill yet and she could provide no information on the cost of the contract.
In April, five members of StrategyCorp registered with the Ontario Lobby Registry to approach the premier’s office, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure regarding capital funding for the hospital.
John Matheson, a principal at StrategyCorp, confirmed the information on the registry but said that the company does not publicly discuss client matters.
The Ontario Lobbyists Registry reveals that Credit Valley Hospital already receives substantial public funding.
The Ontario government, through its Mississauga Halton Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), provides $239.5 million in funding, the provincial Ministry of Health directly injects $37.1 million and publicly-funded Cancer Care Ontario gives $10.5 million.
But the hospital’s strategic plan document says that economic pressures, increasing health care demands, technology costs and “exhausted efficiency measures” all contributed to a $7 million deficit.
“The greatest challenge that CVH faces is to provide excellent patient care to its community while exercising fiscal responsibility,” the plan says. “To date, increasing demand by our growing population meant CVH attempted to provide everything to everyone; however, in order to balance its budget and continue to meet increasing patient demands, significant strategic changes must be made.”
It’s not the first time a hospital has used lobbyists to approach the government.
Former Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman, now a candidate in the Toronto mayor’s race, once criticized the use of private consultants to lobby for more funding.
“I’ve got to figure if you’ve got money to pay lobbyists, you haven’t done all of the work necessary to show me what the real pressure is,” Smitherman said in 2004.