SUNDRE — Automatically dismissing privately-owned, for-profit care facilities as inherently negative is a shortsighted perspective, says the owner of a Calgary-based, family company with plans to expand in town.
Joel Bond -- the owner of Travois Holdings Ltd. which recently successfully bought the former Foothills Lodge -- said during an interview prior to the sale being finalized that the market benefits from the presence of public, not-for-profit as well as private enterprises.
“The connotation that all private health care is bad, is a very simplistic way of looking at how difficult it is to provide health care properly for a huge population of people,” said Bond, who runs two care centres with a combined nearly 200 beds in Calgary.
When asked his response to people who express concerns about privately-run, for-profit facilities — especially in light of developments in some care homes that were hit so hard by COVID-19 that the military was brought in — Bond said, “I can only speak to Alberta and our province, because health care is provincial. So, one of our strengths in Alberta, is that we have a real mix of operations.”
Those options come as a result of having public nursing homes as well as not-for-profit models and private care centres, he said.
“That variability has really resulted in a lot of different kinds of products that have come on — a lot of different types of homes.”
Some private enterprises have 5,000 beds across Canada, and there are “companies like ours that have 200 just in Calgary,” he said.
“That variability, and that distinction in delivery of service, is actually a benefit to the taxpayer, and it’s a benefit to all of our people, because there’s all different kinds of homes and businesses,” he added.
“I would argue, that in any industry, there should be room for big business, there should be room for little business, (and) there should be room for public business as well. Having all of that threaded through health care, is a benefit.”
Running a smaller company than the nation-wide behemoths enables Bond to keep a hand on the pulse of the business and to play a closer, more personal role in the day-to-day operations of his facilities.
“I taste the food, I adjust the recipes of the food if it’s not right. The place that has 5,000 beds, the president probably doesn’t do that — nor could he ever. It’s just a different model,” he said.
Logistically speaking, operating a business with a couple hundred beds is also more manageable than one with thousands, he said.
“I would like to think so. I like to think for us, that we put a nice touch on the small details,” he said, adding residents or families with questions can call and meet with him upon request.
“I don’t have a big office tower that I work out of — my offices are the buildings we own.”
