Belleville council announces $1 million donation to Hospice Quinte

Representatives of Hospice Quinte gathered with Belleville councillors and Mayor Mitch Panciuk (centre) after Monday’s city-council meeting, all smiles because of the city’s pledge of $1 million to help build a hospice building. Photo courtesy of Marilyn Warren, City of Belleville

By Liam Radford

BELLEVILLE – Belleville city council approved a $1 million donation over six years to the Hospice Quinte capital campaign at Monday’s meeting.

Mayor Mitch Panciuk said the money will help Hospice Quinte build a new six-bed hospice facility between Belleville and Quinte West, and approach other groups for donations.

“How we treat one another during particularly difficult times in life is a testament to the values we hold as human beings. This investment is further proof of our commitment to bettering the lives of our residents including during the end of life,” the mayor said.

Jennifer May-Anderson, the executive director of Hospice Quinte, said the new facility will start construction once they have received donations or pledges totalling 80 per cent, or $7.5 million, of the total cost of the facility. The new facility is budgeted to cost $9.5 million and Hospice Quinte has raised $3.2 million with donations from the city of Belleville, Quinte West and funding from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, May-Anderson said.

The request to council marks a transition for the campaign. It will now begin asking for public donations to help reach its goal, May-Anderson said.

“If all things go as planned and there’s no unexpected delays, (the facility) would be up and running in the spring of 2021,” May-Anderson said.

Hospice Quinte currently provides a visiting hospice service, a palliative care service to help improve quality of life for people with illnesses in an advanced stage by providing pain relief and meeting other needs to assist them in living out their remaining days with as much comfort as possible. Hospice Quinte also provides bereavement support from their location in the Bayview Mall. When the facility is completed they will move their offices to the new location.

” Some people get confused and think that we will no longer offer our community visiting program, but we will continue to be offering that. We will just do the support for that out of the new centre. It’s not a change in service. It is an expansion of services,” May-Anderson said.