Sudbury councillors to vote on budget as PET scanner decision looms
City could provide $1M needed for disease-detecting test but councillors appear divided
Sudbury may be moving forward with a new budget tonight after city councillors vote on a lengthy list of spending options.
If the hospital really needed this piece of equipment they would have it by now.- Sudbury Coun. Lynne Reynolds
Councillors will be able to rank and vote on proposals, including one that calls for a one-time grant of $1 million for a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner. This nuclear medicine imaging test "can be used to evaluate normal and abnormal biological function of cells and organs," according to cancer.ca.
In order to get this scanner, the community must be able to raise the required funds. Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann said she wants the city to pay for the cancer-detecting equipment. However, councillors such as Lynne Reynolds say they're not so quick to conclude that the money should come out of the city's budget.
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"You know, I'm thinking if the hospital really needed this piece of equipment they would have it by now, and I'm not so sure that they want it or they think it's worth it," Reynolds said.
"If we pay for the whole kit and caboodle, they're going to make the north wait," Coun. Rene Lappierre said in reference to the provincial government. "They're going to say look they waited long enough for the PET scanner, we didn't have to pay a thing, they raised it themselves. So, I don't want to be in that predicament."
Lappierre stressed that health care costs should be covered by the province and it shouldn't be up to the city to pay for the whole thing.
To date, $1 million has been raised for the scanner but another million is required to pay for it.