{"id":76130,"date":"2019-10-13T14:29:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T18:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=76130"},"modified":"2019-10-13T17:20:08","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T21:20:08","slug":"listen-up-the-numbers-support-the-recommendation-for-two-new-hospitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/listen-up-the-numbers-support-the-recommendation-for-two-new-hospitals\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen Up! The numbers support the recommendation for two new hospitals"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Hugh Mackenzie
Huntsville Doppler<\/p><\/div>\n

The Politics of Fear<\/strong><\/p>\n

I do not often write about the same subject two weeks in a row, but this week I am making an exception.<\/p>\n

There has been a great deal of talk over the past few weeks about the recommendation of the Task Force appointed by Muskoka Algonquin Health Care (MAHC) which would see the eventual construction of two new hospitals in the District, one in Bracebridge and one in Huntsville. Many, but not all of these comments have been negative and most of those were based on information that, to put it as politely as possible, was inflammatory, scare mongering and not completely accurate.<\/p>\n

We heard that the recommendations of the Task Force, if implemented, would result in crushing costs of over $200 million to people in Muskoka, that property tax rates would go sky-high, that the Provincial Government would never deliver on the proposal, that the recommendation for two new sites, now approved unanimously by the MAHC Board, was nothing more than a tactic by them to lure Huntsville into complacency while a new hospital was built only in Bracebridge, leaving North Muskoka in the lurch. And so on.<\/p>\n

Well, there is another side to that story. The research and recommendation of the MAHC Task Force paints a much different picture, especially in terms of cost to the local taxpayer. Here in a nutshell is what they have to say.<\/div>\n