Letter to the Community

Letter to the Community

In response to a recent article regarding potential changes to the Board Composition at Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH), the Governance Committee of the Board felt it would be appropriate to share the approved Resolution from our most recent OSMH Board meeting in the spirit of transparency.

RECITALS:

A. The Corporation’s corporate by-law (the “Corporate By-law”) provides that the Corporation’s board of directors (the “Board”) shall include the following three ex-officio voting directors: (i) one person elected by the Nurses’ Alumnae Association of the Corporation (the “Nurses’ Association”); (ii) one person elected by and from the members of Branch #34 Orillia, Royal Canadian Legion (the “Legion”); and (iii) one person appointed by the Council of the Municipal Corporation of the City of Orillia (the “Council”) from among its Council members.

B. The Nurses’ Association no longer exists and the ex-officio voting director position for a person elected by the Nurses’ Association is currently vacant.

C. The ex-officio voting director position for a person elected by the Legion has frequently been vacant.

D. The Corporation retained third-party legal counsel to investigate the chair of the Board’s concerns regarding the Council-appointed ex-officio voting director’s compliance with the Corporation’s Board Performance Management Policy and Code of Conduct, and the director refused to cooperate with or participate in the investigation.

E. The Board has also identified and discussed governance rationales for the elimination of all ex-officio voting director positions from the Board’s composition, including alignment of the Corporation’s governance with broader trends in public hospital sector and recommended best practices.

F. It is therefore in the best interests of the Corporation to amend the Corporate By-law to remove all ex-officio voting director positions from the composition of the Board.

G. An amended Corporate By-law that removes all ex-officio voting director positions from the composition of the Board (the “Amended Corporate By-law”) has been presented to the Board for approval.

RESOLVED that:

1. the Amended Corporate By-Law, in the form presented to the Board, be adopted and is hereby approved as the corporate by-law of the Corporation, subject to confirmation by the members of the Corporation (the “Members”) by ordinary resolution;

2. the Amended Corporate By-law be submitted to the Members for confirmation by ordinary resolution;

The OSMH Board takes matters of governance very seriously, consulting experts in hospital governance law to ensure best practices are followed.   Although the details of the OSMH Board Meeting remain confidential, the motion recitals, as approved by the OSMH Board, provide a summary of the rationale related to each of the current ex officio voting director roles.   It is important to note that the OSMH Board holds all Board members accountable to our Code of Conduct, without exception.

To our colleagues at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 34, I would like to reaffirm OSMH’s commitment to the Legion and our veterans who have served to protect our country.   This is of great personal importance to me, as my father served in the Second World War to preserve the freedoms we now enjoy.   I have a deep appreciation for the sacrifice our veterans have made and the importance of keeping their memory alive at Soldiers’.

At Soldiers’, we take pride in the fact that we honour all veterans every day with our name and our identity as Soldiers’.   It is deeply embedded in our values, our strategy and our daily conversations.   For example, Soldiers’ has a staff recognition program where peers nominate colleagues for a ‘Soldiers’ Salute’ for demonstrating the values of the organization.  On average, there are 25 ‘Soldiers’ Salutes’ circulated to the entire organization via email weekly to acknowledge excellence in care.

When we renewed our logo to its current form approximately 6 years ago, we chose to emphasize the word “Soldiers’” as a direct tribute to those who served our country.   Our current logo is based on the First World War Canadian Star Medal which was awarded to those who served in that conflict.

The intent was, and still is, to honour the origin of our name, which dates back to the time just after that war.   Meaningful and public tangible examples such as this, and our ongoing support of the Legion’s Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Cenotaph, are where we feel we can effectively honour those who served our country so bravely.

Soldiers’ is who we are, and this is how we will remember.

We understand that the proposed changes to the OSMH Board composition may appear to some as a symbolic loss for the Legion.   For that, we are sorry.   In the past 5 years, the Legion representative on the OSMH Board has been vacant the majority of the time, despite best efforts by the Legion President to identify a representative.

It was eventually filled by the brother of the Mayor of Orillia, shortly after the Mayor himself was appointed to the OSMH Board.   That is not in keeping with current best practices for governing a publicly funded institution.

The OSMH Board and leadership team value the ongoing relationship with the Legion, and we will continue to meet with Legion representatives to ensure we honour our past while looking ahead to our exciting future.

Lawrence Pietras
Board Chair
Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital