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st i 4 thrrhibjdlnt thursday afcril 30 1998 p 3 longterm care gets big boost wk investigation continues york region police sgt john sheldon right confers with an officer behind the fence where a vicious dog attack claimed the life of a stouffville girl wednesday afternoon phata by steve somerville ontarios new investment in longterm care looks like a serious effort to put muchneeded facilities at the community level local health care experts say the enormous amount promised si 2 billion supporting 20000 new beds in homes for the elder ly over the next eight years follows strong simi lar recommendations to boost care for the aged this week from the provinces health services restruc turing commission its a major step forward concluded dr helena jaczek york regions medical officer of health said yesterday its better late than never jaczek said its long overdue but at least there seems to be a commit ment the announcement included a promise to add the equivalent of 1 75 nursing homes or homes for the aged in ontario and rebuild 1 00 outdated longterm care facilities as well the province is trying to sim plify the overlycomplex system that funds and assigns people to longterm care all that is good for york region where develop ment of longterm care has been virtually frozen for 15 years as the population climbed said john wilson interim chair of the simcoeyork district health council we have sort of drifted from being somewhere in the middle to being a havenot region said wilson the province also released new design standards for nursing homes and homes for the aged leveling the playing field between all private and nonprof it facilities which must now be built or rebuilt to the same standards and get the same funding jaczek said the news is particularly good for the regions longterm facility in newmarket which has waited a year for permission to do renovations she said cuts the commission has ordered to some hospi tals make a lot more sense now that the govern ment is putting dollars into the community for long- term care said graham constantine the dhcs executive director a health ministry spokesperson said figures for york region wont be released until tomorrow the commission however said the region which had 1806 longterm care beds in 1996 in its nursing homes and homes for the aged needs 1 014 more by 2003 there should also be at least 3441 spaces in supportive housing longterm home care and atten dant care within the region compared to just 1468 in 1 996 the commission suggested library ballantrae bound councillor joan ransberry staff reporter a library branch is planned for ballantrae the tribune has learned library board member and ward 5 councillor judy scala has confirmed that the library board is in the preliminary stages of building a satellite branch in the northern hamlet if one is needed anywhere its needed in ballantrae said scala nothing is absolute stressed library board chairman jan williams but we are discussing it it is a forward motion she said the preferred located for the library branch is somewhere in the vicinity of the ballantrae community centre and the bal lantrae public school said exclusive scala communitys with satellite branches have reported good things while other communities have had problems said scala we really have to look into it said scala the library board is working with school boards and the town to prove some kind of library service for ballantrae a report stated the library board has not determined the cost of a branch for ballantrae said scala as well as investigation location possibilities the library board is looking at capital and operating costs for the ballantrae project meanwhile the plan to build a major expansion at the library in downtown stouffville continues the library board hopes to get a committment from whitchurch- stouffville council for construction startup in 1999 were very excited about it all said scala things are moving ahead appointment fiitl v j you can bank on it students from willowgrovc primary school toured the scotiabank on main street monday morning to learn how banks work pictured here arc jarcd hcnriqucs daniel kalil sarah lcgcmaatc and matthew morris assistant manager susan law shows the kids the vault area photg ty stye s role models meet girls tomorrow about 350 york region girls will meet an aircraft mechanic a psychiatrist a veterinarian and a chemical engineer and all these professionals and others at the districts public school boards annual women in science and technology conference will be women seeing such role models will be important for the grade 7 and 8 girls said gord wagner the boards curricu lum consultant a lot of the girls still think that math and science is sort of for the boys he said this week we want to break that myth almost all the women from science and technologyrelated careers at the conference held at seneca collages king campus are appearing free of charge wagner added correction markham stouffville hospital has 78 acute care beds ontarios health ser vices restructuring commission has recommended adding 29 more by 2003 not 107 beds as was suggested in an article tuesday the tribune regrets the error ian proudfoot john baxter president of metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd is pleased to announce the appointment of ian proudfoot as publisher of the markham economist sun and the whitchurchstouftvihe tribune and the uxbridge tribune mr proudfoot is also publisher of the erabanner and the liberal metroland newspapers that serve the rest of york region and south sim- coe county mr proudfoot replaces patricia pappas who has announced her retirement the appointment is effective immediately