Huron County councillors have been reluctant in the past to provide funding for health care costs that were deemed to be the responsibility of the Province.
But following a presentation from John and Heather Steffler about the loss of their son Tanner this summer, councillor Dave Hewitt suggested the county should step up, and also questioned whether the Province would have the solutions.
“I don't know that they would necessarily know what a Huron County solution would look like. And I don't mean to disparage them, but we have specific needs or unique needs in Huron County and I think we are best suited to describe what those needs are and we can address those. My point is I don't think we can wait for the Province to come up with a solution. I think we need to drive a Huron County solution to the problem.”
Hewitt suggested the county shouldn't wait for the Province this time.
“The risks of this are too great I believe and I think that we do need to come up with solutions for it. We just can't wait for somebody to drive those solutions for us. We need to come up with it ourselves. You do run the risk though of maybe, potentially, looking at some loss of funding but I think we do have funding dollars available and I think we maybe need to put those to work in something like this.”