Summary#

The Ross Memorial Hospital Act, 2022 is a special Act that continues Ross Memorial Hospital as a corporation and repeals three earlier special Acts about it. Its stated goal is to give effect to the hospital’s application to change its objects, powers, board and membership; the new Act sets out objects and governance rules, but does not list separate corporate powers. The Act took effect when it received Royal Assent.

• The corporation continues without share capital under the name Ross Memorial Hospital. The operative text omits “The” from the name.
• Its objects include running a hospital and health facilities, and may include active treatment, chronic and complex care, emergency, outpatient, rehabilitation and therapy services. They also cover health education, research, and other health-related services such as long-term care, home health care, public health, mental health and addictions services. These objects do not require the hospital to offer every listed service.
• The Board must manage the corporation’s activities and affairs. The corporation may make by-laws, including rules on board size, composition and directors’ terms.
• On Royal Assent, the members became the voting directors, and they remain members only while they serve as voting directors. The Board initially includes the directors then serving and any other people provided for under the Public Hospitals Act; after that, by-laws determine its size and composition.
• The Act repeals the 1903, 1964 and 2000 special Acts about the hospital. Those Acts were not supplied, so the changes from the previous rules cannot be fully checked.

What it means for you#

• Patients and the public: The Act sets out a wider list of purposes the hospital may pursue. It does not guarantee any particular service, create a new patient benefit, or change patient eligibility rules.
• Hospital directors and members: Voting directors become the corporation’s only members, and the Board manages the corporation. By-laws may set board size, composition and director terms.
• Hospital staff and service users: The Act does not require the hospital to add services or set out how any new services would be approved or delivered.
• Taxpayers: The Act does not set a tax, fee or fine, or create a funding program.

Money#

No publicly available information on the cost is included in the supplied material.

• The Act gives no spending estimate, funding amount or staffing requirement.
• It sets out objects that include operating a hospital and a range of health-related services, but does not say how those activities will be funded.

What is unclear#

• The earlier special Acts are not supplied, so it is not possible to verify what membership and governance rules existed before this Act.
• The Public Hospitals Act is not supplied, so the people it requires or allows to serve on the Board cannot be confirmed here.
• The hospital’s by-laws are not supplied. The Act therefore does not show the Board’s final size, composition or directors’ terms.
• Terms such as “health facilities” and “other health care or health care related programs and services” are not defined in this Act. It also does not say which listed services the hospital will provide.

Case for#

• The Act appears intended to replace several separate special Acts with one updated law for the hospital.
• A possible argument for the broad objects is that they allow the hospital to pursue a range of health services, education and research without requiring every activity to be listed as a separate object.
• Giving the Board authority to manage the corporation and make by-laws lets it set governance details, including board size and director terms.

Case against#

• The objects cover a wide range of health-related activities, but the Act does not explain what limits or approval steps apply to expanding into them. Other laws may set rules, but they are not included in the supplied material.
• Making voting directors the only members may concentrate formal membership in the Board. Whether this removes membership rights held by anyone else under the old rules cannot be verified from the supplied material.
• The Act does not provide funding or explain how the listed services would be paid for. The objects alone do not ensure that services will be available.