A major developer is interested in building a facility specifically designed for family doctors in St. Albert, says Mayor Nolan Crouse.
Details like what the group is planning to build and where remain confidential, Crouse said, but the group is serious about the idea.
“They are being quite aggressive at looking at options within the community,” he said. “They have already got an artist rendering of a concept.”
The city can’t reveal any of the details about the project just yet, but Crouse has confidence it will happen.
“We know they are serious, but they just haven’t given us a timeframe,” he said.
The developer is still trying to figure out the feasibility of its idea but is very interested, said Coun. Malcolm Parker, who initially approached the unnamed developer.
Parker believes some kind of medical complex would be popular with family physicians because it would let them concentrate on medicine.
“They are looking at opportunities where there would be a facility that they could locate in and they wouldn’t have to worry about the maintenance or anything like that,” Parker said.
A shortage of family doctors is an ongoing concern for St. Albert and after forming a physician attraction committee, the city conducted an online survey earlier this year, that showed about 20 per cent of residents don’t have a family doctor.
Because it was done online, the survey isn’t considered statistically accurate, but combined with information received from doctors in the community, the results have lead committee members to believe the city is short somewhere between 10 and 15 doctors, Crouse said.
He said the private developer who is interested in building sees the same shortage the city is seeing.
“What their assessment is, what their due diligence says, is that there is a shortage of family doctors they believe that if they build a facility they are going to attract,” Crouse said.
He said the facility would be geared to family physicians and he hopes it will do much of the work of bringing new doctors to the community, though he is open to the city playing a role as well.
“If they can’t attract them by the sheer nature of building a modern building, then maybe council steps in,” he said.
Crouse doesn’t believe the city would have to include cash incentives or housing allowances, as has happened in some rural communities that have struggled to attract doctors.
Parker said it would be a matter of making sure the community doesn’t stand in the way of a good idea.
“When you start looking at zoning and the regulations for zoning we can make sure that it is as palatable for them as we can so we don’t have a lot of barriers in the way,” he said.
