At a press conference organized by the Beauharnois-Valleyfield-Haut-Saint-Laurent Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIBVHSL) on March 30, the organization took a stand and joined the movement to maintain specialized services at the Suroît Hospital, which the CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest (CISSSMO) proposes to transfer to the hospital to be built in Vaudreuil-Dorion. Entrepreneurs Michel Choinière, owner of Canadian Tire Valleyfield, Karine Gosselin, President and CEO of Gosselin Insurance Brokers, and Jean-François Gagnon, director of human resources at the CEZinc, spoke, as did the mayor of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Miguel Lemieux, and the president of the CCIBVHSL, Suzanne Carrier.
Suzanne Carrier, President of the CCIBVHSL, Jean-François Gagnon, HR Director of CEZinc, Michel Choinière, owner of Canadian Tire Valleyfield, Miguel Lemieux, Mayor of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, and Karine Gosselin, President and CEO of Gosselin Courtiers d assurances, spoke at the press conference.
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Serious economic consequences
The CCIBVHSL maintains that access to health services is a major, even essential, vector for the economic development of a city and a region and that companies that invest in an environment primarily want their employees and their families to have access to of all possible health services.
A letter was therefore drafted by the Chamber of Commerce, and co-signed by nearly a hundred entrepreneurs in the region, asking the government to maintain the presence of the mother-child center and the 10 services threatened with transfer to the Hospital. du Suroît. This missive argues that although the needs for a new hospital in Vaudreuil-Soulanges are present:
“The Beauharnois-Valleyfield-Haut-Saint-Laurent Chamber of Commerce and Industry considers that it is unacceptable to abolish the mother-child center, delivery and pediatric services at the Suroît Hospital Center and that it It is essential to protect or increase local services for both Haut-Saint-Laurent and Beauharnois-Salaberry in terms of gynecology and pregnancy follow-up. “
Suzanne Carrier, director of the CCIBVHSL, argued that this decision of the CISSSMO would have disastrous consequences on the population of several municipalities.
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A brake on development
The three entrepreneurs present at the press conference had a similar speech: the region is currently booming and the transfer of services would deal a serious blow to economic development for years to come. For his part, Michel Choinière, Campivallensien by adoption, did not hesitate to get involved and to contact entrepreneurs in the region so that they join the movement. He pointed out that he had given many donations to the Mother-Child Center of the Suroît Hospital through the Bon Départ Foundation, which are in addition to the $ 1.8 million invested in this same department as part of a fundraising campaign. the Suroît Hospital Foundation in 2012.
For her part, Karine Gosselin, resident of Haut-Saint-Laurent and future mother, deplored the decision of CISSSMO for women in her region, who will need on average an hour of transport to receive gynecological care and pregnancy follow-up. , and to give birth, in Vaudreuil-Dorion.
“We are talking about one hour of transport for people who have a car,” she explains. We all know that there are few or no public transport services connecting the Haut-Saint-Laurent and other regions. “
She also mentioned the issues of succession in agriculture, a very important sector in her native region. “If services for families are moving away, people will not want to stay in the regions,” she says.
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Michel Choinière
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Karine Gosselin
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Jean-Francois Gagnon
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Jean-François Gagnon underlined the importance for a regional capital like Salaberry-de-Valleyfield to have a hospital that meets the various current and future needs of its community, in addition to acting as a major asset to convince the news families to settle there.
“Our municipality is finally experiencing population growth and we must all contribute to its development. Now is not the time to lose what we have taken so long to build, ”he said.
Mr. Gagnon also underlined the important contribution of CEZinc for the Fondation de l’Hôpital du Suroît. A direct amount of $ 500,000 has been donated over the years to ensure that the hospital is at the cutting edge of technology. It would therefore be disappointing, according to him, if all the sums invested did not return in services to the population.
A gesture of solidarity
The mayor of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Miguel Lemieux, said he was flattered by the involvement of his sisters in the MRCs of Haut-Saint-Laurent and Beauharnois-Salaberry, wardens Louise Lebrun and Maude Laberge, as well as of the Chamber of Commerce and its members to maintain services in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.
“This movement shows even more clearly that all sectors are mobilizing,” he said. It is not only a community or union issue, it affects all spheres of our regional community. “
Miguel Lemieux, Mayor of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield
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One of the chief magistrate’s fears is that these first transferred services will only be the tip of the iceberg. With the glaring shortage of manpower at CISSSMO, the competition for professionals will be unfair between a new hospital offering all services and a hospital dating from the 1980s, from which services are being withdrawn.
“Are we going to empty one hospital to fill another?” He asked. Right now, there’s no way we can get away with honorably and without an even greater problem of labor retention. “
Join the movement
The Beauharnois-Valleyfield-Haut-Saint-Laurent Chamber of Commerce and Industry therefore asks the entrepreneurial body to co-sign the explanatory letter on the economic consequences of the CISSSMO decision in order to give its support. This can be obtained and signed by contacting Éliane Galipeau, Executive Director of the CCIBVHSL, by email at [email protected].
To follow the developments of this initiative, all the information can be found on the page Facebook Save the Mother-Child Center in Valleyfield.
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