As Chair of the Finance
Resources and Audit Committee and as Treasurer of the Mississippi River Health
Alliance, it is my pleasure to present the financial results – first for the
Almonte General Hospital – and followed by those for the Carleton Place &
District Memorial Hospital.
Almonte General Hospital
The audited financial
statements for the Almonte General Hospital represent the results of operations
for the year ended March 31, 2026, as well as the financial position for the organization
at that date. The results include the Hospital, Fairview Manor, and Lanark
County Paramedic Services.
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT
The firm of BDO Canada completed
the year-end audit. You should note that the independent auditor’s report gives
their opinion that the financial statements present fairly, in all material
respects, the financial position of Almonte General Hospital as of March 31, 2026;
and the results of its operations, changes in net assets, cash flows, and
re-measurement gains and losses for the year that ended are reported in
accordance with Canadian public sector accounting standards. This is a clean
audit opinion.
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
The Working Capital Ratio, representing Current Assets/Current Liabilities, decreased
from 0.61 as at March 31, 2025 to 0.56 on March 31, 2026.
Think of it as a measure of our capacity to cover
day-to-day financial commitments. Last year, for every dollar we owed of
short-term bills, we had 61 cents available. This year we had 56 cents. The
decrease was primarily due to delays in one time funding that came much later
in the year compared to last year.
Results of Operations
were a deficit of $626,000 compared to a deficit of $1,396,000 in the previous
year, which were mainly due to based funding increases plus significant
one-time funding provided for operating pressures. Basically, the organization
still spent more than it received during the year, but the gap was much smaller
than previous year because additional funding helped offset some operating
costs.
Some of the increased costs we
experienced included the cost of adding additional resources to operate the CT
scanner for the entire year, as well as higher sick and overtime costs.
Additional costs were also incurred to repair the older facilities, as well as
incremental IT costs to continue to strengthen internal systems.
FOUNDATION
Thank you to the Almonte
General Hospital Foundation for its very generous support of critical equipment
purchases of $986,000. Our communities have been better served with this investment
in equipment.
Carleton Place & District Memorial Hospital
The financial statements for
the Carleton Place & District Memorial Hospital represent the results of
operations for the year ended March 31, 2026.
INDEPENDENT AUDITOR'S REPORT
BDO completed the year-end
audit. The independent auditor’s report states the financial statements present
fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Carleton Place
& District Memorial Hospital at March 31, 2026, and its financial
performance and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with
Canadian generally accepted accounting principles. This is also a clean audit
opinion.
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
This year, we had a shortfall
of $1.415M, meaning expenses were higher than revenues by that amount, but this
is an improvement from $1.818M shortfall in the previous year.
The increased expenses were
primarily due to compensation increases including overtime, sick time and inflationary
pressures combined with increasing lab, food, waste removal, depreciation, and
interest costs.
We did however, obtain additional
funding for the costs incurred with the opening and operation of the new Emergency
Department for the full fiscal year.
FOUNDATION
I wish to thank the Carleton
Place & District Memorial Foundation for its very generous support of the
equipment purchases of $340,517 for clinical equipment and the EPIC project.
We are now ready to put forward
a motion concerning the audited financial statements for the Almonte General
Hospital and Carleton Place & District Memorial Hospital.
Motion 1
To approve the AGH Audited Financial
Statements for the 12 months ended March 31, 2026.
Motion 2
To
approve the CPDMH Audited Financial Statements for the 12 months ended March
31, 2026.
AUDIT FIRM
To streamline year-end
financial processes across the Mississippi River Health Alliance, a single
audit firm was used for both the Almonte General Hospital and the Carleton
Place and District Memorial Hospital. This was the first year of this combined
service being provided by BDO.
Representatives from the
Finance, Resources and Audit Committee reviewed the services provided by BDO.
The recommendation of the committee, and that of the Board of Directors, is to
appoint BDO for 2027 audit services. This will now be put forward as a motion.
Motion 3
To appoint BDO as Auditors for the AGH
Corporation for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2027.
Motion 4
To appoint BDO as Auditors for the CPDMH Corporation for the fiscal year
ending March 31, 2027.
A Few Thank Yous
I would like to specifically
thank the Carleton Place & District Memorial Hospital and Almonte General
Hospital Foundations and their Boards of Directors for the support they provide
to our communities’ hospitals. As you
likely know, the province does not fund capital purchases of equipment which
our hospitals require. We could not have
pursued the redevelopment of the Carleton Place Emergency Department, nor the
new CT in Almonte, without the support of our communities through the
Foundations. As we look to the future,
that support from our communities and our Foundations is critical to our
hospitals providing quality care.
I would also like to thank the
BDO audit team for completing the audit work for both hospitals within the same
time frame, delivering as promised.
I would like to extend my
sincere thanks to the following members for their valuable support and
contributions to the Finance Resources and Audit Committee: Alex Bennett, Kent
Kirkpatrick, Michael Maidment, Michel Vermette, Brad Harrington, Brad Hilker, and
our volunteer community member, Nick Kroeger.
I would especially like to
recognize the professionalism, capacity and tenacity of Brad Hilker, in his
role as VP & Chief Financial Officer, and his small but mighty team. It’s been another challenging year, and many
long hours have been spent making sure our money is managed appropriately and
wisely. We are tremendously grateful for
your dedication.
I would also like to thank the
members of the Allied Boards for their due diligence during the last year, and
particularly for their forbearance as their Treasurer droned on, and on about
financial and IT matters. Financial oversight is a cornerstone of good
governance, and I appreciated the Allied Boards’ interest, involvement and
wisdom.
I am passing the torch as Chair
of the Finance Resources and Audit Committee and Treasurer to a new Chair
beginning in September, but it has been a privilege to lead this committee
during this very interesting year, and I look forward to continuing as a member
of the committee as we tackle the challenges ahead.
Thank you all very much,