A local organization’s letter requesting leniency from the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury for about $19,000 in overdue bills was “offside and aggressive,” said one councillor.
Southlake Academic Family Health Team (SAFHT) owes the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury money in late rent charges and utilities bills it “missed in error,” but it said it has already returned the money to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care that it would have used to pay the bills.
In a letter submitted to council at a meeting Tuesday evening, the health team’s executive director J.C. Kirk wrote it sometimes paid rent late because it did not always get an invoice from the town before the start of each month.
“I found (the letter) offside and aggressive, (as if) it was our fault they didn’t pay their bills,” added Coun. Gary Baynes.
Council ultimately voted to let the health team pay back the amount owing in three installments during the next 18 months, but Baynes said the tone of the letter initially made him want to demand payment immediately.
“I will reluctantly support (the 18-month payment plan), but boy oh boy, this is their one and only chance.”
The Holland Court facility owes the Town of BWG about $17,000 in outstanding utility fees and about $2,000 in late rent payment charges for multiple months, according to the letter.
“The errors were not caught until reviewing our statement of our account, as subsequent utility invoices from the Town did not show a previous balance owing,” read the letter.
But now, the money it would have used for those payments is gone.
“SAFHT recognizes we have an obligation to pay BWG the outstanding $19,490.84. However … each fiscal year, SAFHT must return any funding surplus back to the Ministry of Health. This means that the funding we had in our 2015-2016 fiscal year and 2016-2017 fiscal year for the above noted unpaid utilities has been recovered by the Ministry of Health,” read the letter.
The amount owing, the letter continued, represents 4.3 per cent of the organization’s operational budget for the fiscal year, when it is expected to spend 102 per cent of its operational budget and 99 per cent of its total ministry funding this year.
“If SAFHT is to pay the amount owing to BWG, we would be required to make temporary
cuts to our clinical staff budget, which may result in SAFHT having to delay our plan to place additional clinical staff at our Bradford location,” read the letter.
The organization asked the town to consider reducing the amount it owes, or allow it to pay the money back in three installments.
The letter also states the health team incorrectly paid about $17,000 to another vendor instead of the Town of BWG for rent for August and September 2017, but it was able to pay the town this amount in November 2018.
Several councillors said they were confused by the health team’s financial errors, including blaming the town’s supposed irregularity of submitting invoices for missed payments.
“I find those just excuses,” said Coun. Raj Sandhu. “This is not going to be an ongoing thing. If they have a repeat then they’re stuck.”
Deputy Mayor James Leduc called the payment to the wrong vendor “unbelievable.”
“(It needs to) clean up our billing so this doesn’t happen again in the future,” he said.
“I don’t want to see anybody laid off … but they should be more aware (of their finances),” said Coun. Gary Lamb. “I’m not saying we did a bad job, but they’re using that as a screen to explain what the issue was.”
Going forward, read the letter, Kirk said the health team will give the town pre-dated cheques, get regular account statements from the town, and change its “internal quarterly financial process (to) ensure that future utility payments are not missed.”
“Every resident has to pay their due. Every business has to pay their dues,” said Coun. Peter Ferragine.
