LITTLE CURRENT – The Manitoulin Centennial Manor board received some good news in terms of its finances during a meeting held last week.
“I have some good news to share with the board members today,” said Keith Clement, of Extendicare, in his report. “As you recall, we had applied for an HST rebate that cost us $16,000. We received final notification that the refund will be substantially higher than the accounting firm Deloitte had expected we would receive.” He said the current month favourable variance of $140,312 is mainly attributed to $115,000 favourable in overall revenue, mainly due to the HST rebates received for the period of July 2016-December 2020. “This means at the end of February (the Manor) is in a surplus position of $131,467 (which is $140,312 favourable to the budget),” he said, “and on a year-to-date basis there is a surplus of $121,929, which is $134,072 favourable to the budget.”
“In addition (Manor administrator) Tamara (Beam) received notification two days ago that the Manor got reconciled some monies we spent last year—and actually overspent,” said Mr. Clement. “As a result our nursing envelope will see a $90,000 reconciliation from the province (due to pandemic and prevention funding costs). The bottom line is that we will be in a $70,000-$90,000 better bottom line at the end of March.”
Manor Board Chair Pat MacDonald said, “I’m always a little nervous nervous when the government says we are getting extra funds, as they could later decide to take this back.”
Mr. Clement noted that Extendicare won’t consider the funds as revenue until they are guaranteed.
“The Manor will be in a really decent financial position going into the month of March,” said Mr. Clement. “I agree, let’s not count on the $90,000, but broadly speaking that is where we are at, so it is good news.”
Earlier in the meeting Ms. Beam told the board, “we still have a dietary management position that is vacant.”
“It is difficult to recruit (in this pandemic situation),” said Mr. Clement. He noted that “all avenues for hiring have been exhausted thus far. He explained it would cost about $9,000 to hire a recruiter to source an individual for the dietary management position and that by going this route, “it shows the Manor commitment to get someone qualified for the dietary management position in the home.”
Mr. Clement noted the Manor sets aside $10,900 every month for reserves. “We never changed that reserve, which means our bottom line end of year to date is $120,000 and we have $20,000 in reserves so far this year.”
One member of the board said she would be in favour of supporting the Manor hiring a recruiter to recruit someone for the dietary manager position.
However, Gore Bay Mayor Dan Osborne said, “I’m not 100 percent in favour of the recruiter route. We have done this in town and a lot of times you will get someone who will be there for a short time and then they leave soon after for another organization. We could end up spending about $10,000 to hire a professional recruiter and get someone who might end up moving on to another organization.”
Ms. Beam pointed out the Manor has looked into recruiting avenues three times as well as every other avenue available and no one has come through as potential candidates to be hired.
A motion was put forward to provide a maximum of $10,000 to hire a recruiter to recruit a dietary manager for the Manor.
In other news, Ms. Beam told the board that she had made an application to the New Horizon Grant and that, “the Manor was approved for the full amount of $25,000, which will go toward our courtyard renovations.”
“This is really good news,” said Ms. MacDonald.
