Key Messages...
Healthcare
Healthcare is top priority for any community. My background in healthcare IT, healthcare delivery and governance, and the municipal role in effective collaboration and support of healthcare services has provided leadership in advocacy for healthcare throughout the Almaguin Highlands and Muskoka.
I have been chair of the Almaguin Highlands Health Council (representing 10 municipalities) since 2019. Through that, I am proud of my leadership role in support of the Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) hospital redevelopment project and the municipal ‘local share’ initiative. The 10 municipal partners supported a total contribution of $9.5-million toward MAHC's new hospitals. My work on many healthcare-related committees as part of the newly-named Muskoka Almaguin Ontario Health Team further demonstrates commitment to the broader community. Advocacy work with MAHC and with the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, as well as all of the municipalities across Almaguin and Muskoka, has been in efforts to improve healthcare across the entire region through collaboration. In addition to these municipal healthcare connections, I was also chair of the Board for the Almaguin Highlands Family Health Team for one year, and member of the Scientific Planning Committee at the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario for their 2026 conference.
In 2024, after studying the book "Health for All" by Dr. Jane Philpott (now head of the Primary Care Action team for the province) I reached out to Dr. Philpott to see if she would talk to the AHHC group. She graciously did, and encouraged us that the work we were doing was, indeed, working toward a goal of 'health for all'. It was the kind of municipal and community cooperation that is required to evolve healthcare in any community.
This term, my goal is to focus on the development of new health and wellness services and facilities in the Almaguin Highlands. Even our existing healthcare providers cannot offer additional services if they don't have the facilities to expand. That means facilities up to standards for today and well into the future so that future generations can be assured the services will be there. This will need cooperation of all 10 members of our Health Council in order to achieve.