The Mayor of Merritt says he still intends to ask the Province for $90,000 to compensate for closures at the Nicola Valley Hospital’s emergency room last year.

Mike Goetz says it was a little premature for Health Minister Adrian Dix to say that the Province won’t reimburse Merritt, telling Radio NL the actual request hasn’t been made just yet.

“He doesn’t have the power to say yes or no. I mean, he has the power to say ‘ I don’t think this is a good idea’ but ultimately, it falls to the Premier,” Goetz said, on NL Newsday. “The Premier will make a decision on that as it moves along [but Dix is] a little ahead of the game here.”

“I would say maybe wait till Thursday and then say no.”

Speaking in the Legislature on April 23, Dix said the Province will continue to work with the City of Merritt and with Mayor Goetz to address the issues that led to 20 ER shutdowns over 19 days last year, and two this year.

“The mayor of Merritt is taking steps to raise the issues of his community. I completely respect his approach and his advocacy for his community, and I’ve been working with him closely on these issues,” Dix said

“While we won’t be paying the bill, we will be continuing to work with Mayor Goetz, who I’ve worked regularly with in this process, to continue what I think has been a successful effort to fill physician’s positions.”

Goetz wants the B.C. Government to pay about $34,000 to Merritt because of the ER shutdowns and another $55,000 to cover costs incurred by firefighters who he says had to respond when ambulances were busy taking people to Kelowna or Kamloops.

“Deciding on this before you actually have it before you is probably not the best idea but anyway, go ahead and do what you want and we’ll go ahead and do what we want,” Goetz added, noting he plans to keep pressing the issue.

“Every year that I’m shutdown, I will send another bill. It’ll just continue on. And then the next step will be I’ll make an application that instead of charging us at the beginning of the year, you charge us at the end, so we can alter our payment.”

He also said while work to fill vacancies at the hospital – as noted by the Minister – is ongoing, he feels this request for reimbursement is a separate issue.

“Between what we were down for 19 days and with the fire department that put their time in of their budget, it is close to almost $100,000, which is a full per cent raise that our taxpayers had to foot this year,” Goetz said. “At some point in time when do you say ‘hey, we paid for something, we expect to get it back.'”

“I’ve [also] made this statement about a zillion times but you should be able to get what you paid for. It’s just as simple as that.”

The fight over repayment in Merritt comes as the BC Nurses Union held a rally in the community last month, demanding more staffing at Nicola Valley Hospital, as well as a safer working environment.

The series of closures this year also led to an outcry from BC United MLA Jackie Tegart, who told Radio NL that the “system is broken.”