St. Albert seniors will soon have more choice when it comes to where they want to live should a merger of the Sturgeon and Westlock seniors’ foundations go ahead, says a St. Albert councillor.
The Sturgeon Foundation and Westlock Foundation boards voted last month to propose a merger of their respective organizations. St. Albert, Morinville, and Sturgeon County councils received presentations on the proposal this week.
The two foundations manage some 735 units of seniors’ housing in the St. Albert, Sturgeon and Westlock County regions. Residents fund these seniors’ homes through a tax levy – for St. Albert and Sturgeon residents, that levy is about $8.85 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
After it ran into financial trouble in 2013, the Westlock Foundation asked the Sturgeon Foundation’s administration to run its homes, explained Dennis Magnusson, executive director of the Sturgeon Foundation. Westlock’s financials improved due to this deal, which got the foundations talking about a merger.
The provincial government is also encouraging mergers since it wants to cut down on the number of managing bodies it has, said Wes Brodhead, St. Albert’s representative on the Sturgeon board.
The proposed merger would combine the Sturgeon and Westlock boards into a new group called Homeland Housing by Jan. 1, 2017. This would be a bigger, more influential organization that’s better able to manage costs and lobby the province for support, Brodhead said.
The merger won’t affect local representation on the new group, as the board reps of the two current foundations would simply migrate over to the new group’s 13-member board, Brodhead said. If a smaller community ever merges with a bigger one on the new board, the bigger one will take over the smaller one’s seat to keep the board at 13.
Seniors won’t notice any change in service level from the merger, but would have an easier time getting into the facility of their choice, Brodhead said – a Sturgeon resident would no longer come second to a Westlock one when it comes to the wait-list for a Westlock home, and vice-versa.
There won’t be any job losses either, Magnusson said. Some front-line workers might actually get pay-hikes as the two groups harmonize their wages and benefits, he noted.
The merger would not affect the senior’s levy, but any future construction by the new board could, Brodhead said.
Brodhead said the debts of each foundation would be managed separately until they are paid off: Westlock-area taxpayers pay for Westlock facilities, and Sturgeon residents pay for Sturgeon ones. If the new foundation decides to borrow to build a new facility, all residents would pay equally for it.
“That pays dividends to St. Albert,” Brodhead said.
St. Albert is by far the biggest community in both regions and has the biggest need for seniors’ housing, he explained. As the new foundation would allocate seniors homes based on need, its next homes will likely go to St. Albert, and non-St. Albert residents will help pay for them.
All 11 governments on both boards have to approve of this merger before the province will authorize it, Brodhead told St. Albert council Monday.
“If there’s a particular council that says no, we have to go back to the drawing board.”
Brodhead gave notice of a series of motions he planned to bring to council in two weeks that, if passed, would have St. Albert authorize this merger.
Coun. Cam MacKay asked if some sort of debt limit could be placed on the new foundation similar to the one municipalities have under the Municipal Government Act.
“I’d like to see (such) a clause just so we don’t get to the point in time where this agency takes on more debt than it can service.”
Brodhead said that’s possible, but noted that the province already has to approve any loan this group takes out.
The province wants municipalities to vote on this merger by April 30, Brodhead said.
