ASK Salt Spring: Answered - Ep. 58 Eric Jacobsen, Exec. Dir., Lady Minto Hospital Foundation

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

Ask Salt Spring Answered talks to Eric Jacobsen, executive director of the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation about the Seabreeze Inn housing development for health professionals, doctor recruitment, a possible new clinic and other issues.

You're listening to episode 58 of Ask Salt Spring Answered when we speak with Eric Jacobson, who is the executive director of the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation. We talked to him about the sea breeze in development for housing for health workers and other issues on Salt Spring. You're listening to Ask Salt Spring Answer with me Damian Inwood. I'm here with Eric Jacobson who is the executive director of the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation. Welcome Eric. Thank you Damian.ian. And we're in Ask Salt Spring. And a number of things came up. I guess the first thing on everybody's mind

is the sea breeze and the progress with that. And you said that it's on time and on budget. Is that correct? That's right. We are on track. You'll see there's a lot of progress happening at the site right now, and we're looking to be opening sometime fall 2025.

Okay. Now you said, I think, that Salt Spring Island is one of the 10 least affordable places to live, that makes it a challenge for the hospital for recruitment and retaining employees. So how far will this go towards helping that out? So the this staff housing project will be a significant step to addressing what is the major barrier to recruitment intention retention on our island which as you mentioned is affordability. We will be offering 18 units of housing from studio

to three-bedroom dedicated for health care workers and I think this would be a major contribution but it won't solve our housing challenge and indeed we're hoping that we can be a template for other staff housing projects that will help address the need for staff housing. And this isn't the only thing that we're doing to address staff housing for health care workers on the island. We're also about to relaunch our housing information portal which allows landlords and potential tenants who are healthcare workers to connect and find housing as a dedicated resource just for those healthcare workers. When is that going to

happen? That's anticipated to launch in the next month. Okay. Now you said I think that it's really not doctors and nurses who will be living in the series. It'll be more people like housekeeping workers, food services, I guess technicians, clinical staff and that kind of thing, right? Yeah, it's gonna be open to all healthcare staff but it's anticipated that the greatest need comes from folks who we don't necessarily see day to day. We are really familiar with the frontline doctors and nurses, but there is a whole cast of folks who keep our hospital and healthcare facilities functional from lab technicians

to healthcare aides to food services to housekeeping who are all essential components of our healthcare system and they don't necessarily bring in the same income as your doctors. So we're thinking that this project is primarily going to be geared towards offering housing to those who need it the most. Now, the budget on this, I think you said, was $4 million from the foundation and $5 million in a construction loan.

Is that correct? That's roughly correct, looking like it will be about a $10 million project all said and done. OK. And then once it's up and running, you're going to hire a property manager to run it, right? That's correct, yeah. But what happens with the payments for things

like hydro and all that stuff? Does that come out of the foundation? Yeah, the model is that this should be a break-even, self-sustaining project. And any extra money will be put set aside for contingencies, for maintenance or repairs as required. Right. Okay, now I think you were asked about the history of the foundation a little bit and it's been active since 1993 I think. That's right. One of the big things that's happened recently is the new emergency department which was you know I think much looked forward to by everybody. That was funded by the

foundation right? Largely yeah. It was a 13 million dollar project and 8.3 came from the generosity of our community through the foundation. Right. Now we also talked, I think you talked about the Island Community Care Society and the lack of family doctors on the island. What's your involvement with that? So the Island Community Care Society is a group of primarily doctors who are looking to create a new expanded clinic or clinic model on our island and we are standing by to contribute to the required capital costs. It's still somewhat in a discovery feasibility phase,

but once that is complete, we anticipate being able to help substantially with getting that up and running. Okay. And there was talk, I think, Gary was talking about the fact that the site where the portables are now for the unhoused people up on Kings Lane might be a site for something like this. Is

that your understanding? So he's talking about a proposed 50 unit housing project and while we're aware of that we don't really have much yet to do with it there is a thought that maybe there could be additional staff housing within that project right um but all kind of too early to say at this point and was there some sort of having a clinic there as well is that what so it would be on the same parcel of land where the uh present kings lane clinic is okay and so if one you know one of the scenarios could involve expanding the Kings Lane Clinic and so those would be somewhat co-located

or nearby. Right okay. So the goal is to expand the number of doctors on Salt Spring because we need them in our in our hospital emergency rooms right? That's right yeah. Along with a shortage of family doctors, which is acute on our island. I'm sure everybody listening knows, or maybe even experiences not having a family doctor. The thing with our island is that those family doctors or the primary care physicians

are also our emergency physicians. So you will see those doctors also staffing the emergency room, which means that a shortage in primary care is also a shortage in emergency care. Right, so as far as your role in this would be purely philanthropic, right? You would contribute to the construction costs possibly and the running costs of a clinic like that? That's right.

I think our primary role would be to contribute to the capital costs, so helping get a facility up and running. And then there can be a conversation about where the early operating budget comes from as well. Right. Now, obviously you've contributed quite a lot of money, you know, to these two projects already. How's your financial situation with regards to kind of reserve funds to do this kind of work?

And what sort of donations do you require to pull this off? Yeah, so the foundation is in quite a decent financial position today. We have contributed majorly to these projects through the generosity of our donors. And if we are to undertake, say, a capital campaign to help support the primary care clinic that would require an additional campaign and we would be going to our incredibly

generous community and asking for additional support for that. Yeah do you have any any bullpup on how much that might be? Well we're still looking at some potential scenarios and it's too soon to say and it's not it won't be our decision about which path this takes that will be up to the community care Island Community Care Society and we're here to support whatever they choose. Yeah okay. Now what else are you doing? I think you're doing other stuff in the community as well. Give us a bit of an outline of other things that the Foundation does apart from these major projects. Absolutely so So along with the staff housing, we're also working on a recruitment and retention

campaign. The housing is the primary barrier to folks who are aware of Salt Spring Island, but we recognize that there's also a challenge in people discovering that Salt Spring Island is even an option for them to live on. So we're working with Island Health and on our own independent campaign to help recruit critical staff to fill the many vacancies at Lady Mitchell Hospital and these same materials will also be used to help recruit doctors to our community and nurses as well. So would you be working with the tourism board and people like that as well? I mean you know they obviously do work on attracting people to Salt Spring in other areas

right? Yeah it's a slightly different pitch but the answer is yes and we're very open to partnerships with other organizations to put together these materials and it's likely we'll be actually reaching out to the community to ask folks for submissions of photos and videos that show off what an incredible place Salt Spring is to live. We know as salt springers that it's an amazing place to live and for people who are earlier in their career it's a fantastic place to live and for people who are earlier in their career it's a fantastic place to settle and raise a family and so together we're gonna work

to get this message out there across Canada and also into the US to folks who might want to come settle here and help support our health care system. Right now you've been here about a year. Can you tell us a little bit about your background before that? So yeah, I've been at the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation for a year. I've been on Salt Spring for about seven years. And prior to this, I was the CEO and co-founder

of a technology company. Okay, and I think I read somewhere that you'd worked in the downtown Eastside doing some work down there. So that's right. Yeah. Early, early in my career, um, right out of a university, I was a mental health worker in the downtown East side, um, in Vancouver, I've worked at multiple projects, um, across the downtown east side from social housing to a safe injection site. And then I transitioned into research in the same area with the same population and worked on the baseline for a study called the Health and Housing

in Transition Study. And there I interviewed, I did over a hundred three hour interviews on people's health and housing situations and histories. Well the mental health situation on Salt Spring comes up regularly at Ask Salt Spring. There's a lack of facilities and support I think here is fair to say for people with mental issues. Is that something that the Foundation might get involved in? Absolutely.

It's something that we are looking to learn more about and would be keen to help support in the future. I think it is a significant gap here, mental health and substance use. Yeah, good. Okay, so you're a young, you have a young family of your own. What's your first, you've been here seven years you said on Salt Spring. What's your experience been, you know, on the island? How much do you enjoy living here? I absolutely love living on Salt Spring Island. I

think it is, besides being incredibly beautiful in a natural beauty sense. It is such a kind and supportive community. It's also feels like a very safe place to raise a young family. I see it in my kids. They're just intrinsic connection to nature and the kindness of their communities at school and the kindness of their communities at school and just out in the world, it moves me. Now if people want to help the Foundation, how do they do that? Where do they go to find out how to support you? Absolutely. So folks can learn more and donate on our website, which is ladymentofoundation.com. And I would encourage people to be in touch with me directly. You know, we're a small foundation. We have a staff of two and we're very,

very happy to have conversations with folks. People call me, email me, and even occasionally stop by our office, which is in the same building as Barb's Buns. Okay. And is all that information on the website how to get in touch with you? It is, yeah. Okay, great. Okay, Eric, well thanks very much for coming in.

Well, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. Okay. And you've been listening to our Salt Spring Answered on CHIR FM, the voice of the Gulf Islands.