October, 2002

Blake Daley Amazed At Community Response
by Darrell Cole

Each time he thinks of Cumberland County's new regional hospital, Blake Daley can't help be amazed at how the community responded to glaring need.

"We needed a health care facility to take us into the 21st century and because of the community effort we have a health-care centre to take us into the 21st century," Daley said. "It's a beautiful, magnificent building. You can see it in the quality of workmanship on the part of the professionals who built that facility. That building is wrapped and steeped in pride."

The former chair of the old Highland view Regional Hospital Board, it was Daley who pushed the idea of building a new hospital to replace Highland View - parts of which were more than six decades old.

The process leading up to construction of the new hospital began in the 1980's when the former board at Highland View approached the Department of Health about replacing the hospital. The building had numerous shortcomings and physical liabilities which prevented the professionals working there to do so at their full capabilities. For instance, the physiotherapy department was on the third floor of the old hospital, which had an elevator a person in a wheelchair could not open. "Staff made us aware time and time again that the need for a new hospital was an absolute necessity," Daley said.

In the early 1990's, a commission was struck to talk to the department about replacing Highland View. The problem, however, was that no one had any idea of the estimated cost of a new hospital. From looking at other recent projects, it was suggested the community commitment would be in the area of $5 million. To gauge the community's ability to raise that amount of money, the board hired a consultant who determined the community couldn't do so.

"The consultant, who was prepared to offer his services to the campaign, said the best the community could do was raise $2 million," Daley said. "We were afraid that if we held the campaign we'd be doomed to fail and were afraid we'd be setting the community up to fail." Instead of beginning a campaign prematurely, the hospital board dragged its feet hoping for a time when the situation would improve. About 18 months later, though, it became very apparent something had to be done. "The medical staff came before the board and told us we could not take this facility into the 21st century," Daley said. "That comment resonated with me and it was obvious we were going to have to bite the bullet and move forward."

However, when the board went to the province it was told the cost of the community contribution has raised to $7.5 million. "We has a consultant who told us we couldn't raise $5 million, now we were being told 'Oh, by the way, the figure just jumped to $7.5 million," Daley added. The board hired another consultant to once again gauge the community and again it came back with the same $2-million figure. "We were literally between a rock and a hard place." Despite the consultant's findings, the board chose to move forward and created a foundation made up of David Harrison as treasurer, the hospital's administrator David Turner and Daley.

The foundation's first task was to put some structure to the campaign and Above & Beyond was born. From the outset, the board and the foundation felt the county's five municipal units would have to step up and raise at least half of the target. "Person after person and community after community took this project to heart," he said. "I don't know of an organization that didn't rise to the occasion." Key to the success of the campaign was the people who stepped up and made early contributions.

"We went to the auxiliary and said we needed and exemplary gift of $100,000. They came back and said 'no, we're not going to give you $100,000, we're going to give you $200,000.' And, they did it. They stepped up and stepped up in a significant way in the early stages of the campaign." From there, the campaign took off under the leadership of foundation chair Roger Bacon and Above & Beyond chairs Jerry Hallee and Stu Pipe.

"It's a collective success story that I was happy to be a part of," Daley said, adding the new hospital will also be a major feather in the cap for the community as it works to attract new business and industry. "This will be seen as an example of a small town investing in its people and a model of what a small town in Nova Scotia can do."