Since it moved to its new location at 300 Miette Ave., the Cottage Medical Clinic has been operating without a lease from the municipality.
According to Mayor Richard Ireland, council discovered the discrepancy when members tried to look into the conditions of the clinic’s lease a few months ago.
The Miette Avenue building was rebuilt several years ago with the hope that better facilities would attract more medical professionals to Jasper.
The town was struggling to attract enough doctors, so it offered low rates to rent the building. The benefit of having doctors in town was worth the extra years it would take the municipality to recoup its money, Ireland explained.
“We weren’t looking as landlords to make a quick profit, we were looking to maintain the integrity of medical service in this community in the long term,” Ireland said.
In 2010, the clinic began offering aesthetic medicine, in the form of chemical peels and Botox. In June 2013, it started advertising those services.
Council’s original decision to look into the conditions of the lease came after those advertisements sparked concern that the clinic was offering services that “do not appear to be medically necessary,” said Ireland.
That investigation led to the revelation that even though the clinic had been operating for a number of years, “no lease had ever been signed.”
Ireland said that, as far as he knew, the lease had been drawn up and given to the clinic, but “for whatever reason” was never signed and returned.
Long-time clinic workers who are the most familiar with the technical details of its operation were away and unreachable this week, but Declan Unsworth, one of the doctors at the clinic, provided what information he could.
He explained that while the clinic has not signed a lease since it moved to its new location, there is a “working agreement” between it and the municipality.
He said the clinic pays a set amount of rent every month, and that amount is adjusted for inflation each year. While he didn’t know exactly why a lease was never signed, he said the clinic has no problems signing an agreement with the municipality.
“If the municipality would like us to sign something, we are more than happy to do so,” he said.
Ireland said that at this point he has no explanation for the apparent oversight, and suggested that the reason it went unnoticed for so long was because the clinic was always on time with its payments.
“It’s one of those things where we had come to general terms and we had a deal. It was off of council’s agenda, and why it fell through the cracks at an administrative level—if that’s what happened—I don’t know,” Ireland said.
Now that the issue has been brought to light, Ireland said he thinks it won’t be long before the two parties come to an agreement on a lease.
Although he had little to say about the situation, Jasper’s Chief Administrative Officer Peter Waterworth confirmed that lease negotiations between the municipality and the Cottage Medical Clinic are ongoing. A representative from the clinic also confirmed that a meeting had been scheduled with the CAO.
In an interview, Feb. 17, Ireland was quick to point out that, despite the fact that a lease was never signed, the municipality has never had any problems with the clinic.
“It’s not that they are delinquent in any sense. They’ve been excellent tenants and have always paid the rent on time,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to suspect, or to intonate, that there’s any trouble between the parties,” he added.
Trevor Nichols[email protected]
