Bruce County council is going outside its borders to support the Wingham and District Hospital Foundation's fundraising campaign.
Council voted to donate $100,000 to the $4-million "Our Hospital, Our Future" campaign, though there's still some small details to work out.
The donation will be spread over four years, and county staff will report back on whether they can find room in the budget to make the first payment this year and if not, the first instalment will be made in 2017.
Warden Mitch Twolan says about one-third of the patients at the Wingham and District Hospital are from Bruce County, so it makes sense for county council to support the project.
He says the funding model put in place by the provincial government puts the onus on municipal politicians to put taxpayer dollars towards hospital projects.
"Municipalities and counties are in the health care business, whether we like it or not and I've said this before, but if we want to continue having hospitals and health care centres in our communities, obviously we as politicians have to step up to the plate and help these projects happen," says Twolan.
Twolan points out the county recently donated $1-million to the Grey Bruce Health Services campaign and will likely consider a donation for the planned renovations at the Kincardine hospital in the near future.