Carla Beck spoke to the Bashaw town council regarding the Camrose and Area Lodge Authority annual report during the Aug. 23 meeting.
Beck is the chief administrative officer of the Camrose and Area Lodge Authority and chief executive officer of The Bethany Group.
Beck explained that the requisition was increased by $50,000 this year, making the current requisition $100,000. The $100,000 is split between the City of Camrose, Camrose County and the Town of Bashaw.
“Slightly over 56 per cent comes from the city, just about 42 per cent from the county and then 1.61 per cent from the Town of Bashaw,” Beck said.
Beck explained to council that in the past, the requisition has mostly stayed the same; however, due to inflation this year, it was increased.
“Those areas where we have the most issues with inflationary costs are food costs, and then our labour costs have increased and carbon tax,” said Beck.
“We have been able to receive some provincial funding and support for occupancy loss and this came out of the COVID funding that’s still continuing in the lodge areas.”
Bashaw Meadows was receiving funding for their designated supportive living (DSL) beds; however, the funding ended in June.
Now, if there is a vacancy, there is no funding for that loss.
“Bashaw Meadows actually has two vacancies right now in DSL,” explained Beck.
In January, Bashaw Meadows had 10 vacancies including DSL beds and currently has 14 vacancies.
Beck told council that they are working on marketing, with a significant presence on social media focusing on Bashaw Meadows. She explained that they were not only marketing within the community but provincially as well.
Coun. Cindy Orom questioned Beck about the staffing situation at Bashaw Meadows.
“We are struggling with staffing in Bashaw, we continue to have that issue, as many continuing care operators do across the province,” Beck responded, stating that they are trying to recruit staff that has done their training at Bashaw Meadows.
“We’re working with those kinds of strategies to be able to kind of grow our own. So we partner with NorQuest to do that, and we’re able to offer that opportunity to in-house staff first if they choose and we’d like to be part of that program.”
Jessica Campbell
ECA Review
