A recent decision to privatize Roseway Manor in Shelburne is being criticized by members of the community.
The three government bodies who own it, the Town’s of Shelburne and Lockport and Shelburne’s Municipality, recently decided to transfer ownership of the long-term care home to a private for-profit entity.
Darren Stoddard is representing the group concerned by the move. He says they have two big concerns.
“We will lose our community board and we’ll lose all community input, and the second part is that ‘for profit’ means that all surplus money from the budget will go into the pockets of shareholders,” says Stoddard. “Right now, all surplus money goes into services back into the building and we do not want residents losing services.”
The three municipal units plan to ask the province to call for a Request for Proposals to build a new facility which will be operated privately for-profit.
Stoddard says they want the municipal units to collaborate with them.
“We just had a community meeting, it was very well attended, but none of the councillors showed up that voted for profit,” says Stoddard. “They never consulted with their community, they never consulted with the workers there, they never consulted with the residents or any of their family members and they just made this decision, it almost seems like they were trying to sneak it through in all honesty.”
We’ve reached out to the Town and Municipality of Shelburne for comment.
