This week’s look back at the earlier days of Cochrane takes us to 1998, and the debate over whether to merge the hospitals in Cochrane, Iroquois Falls and Matheson.
Public library archivist Ardis Proulx-Chedore reads from an article in the Cochrane Times issue of July 24th.
“’My fear is Cochrane will become a nursing station,’ said Councillor Angelo Anselmo, adding that control, services and jobs could be transferred to a head office in Iroquois Falls.”
The executive officer for the proposed organization, Dan O’Mara, said that the goal is to make each of Lady Minto, Anson General and Bingham Memorial Hospitals strong.
That’s not the only story on that front page. Proulx-Chedore describes the featured photo.
“Nicola MacIsaaac is pictured at the halfway mark of the half-mile swim, one of the events in the 42nd annual Round-the-Lake swim. She won the race in 13:07.”
Also on the front page was a story about the strike at the Abitibi-Consolidated paper mill in Iroquois Falls. It was one of eleven mills on strike in Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick.
Québec’s labour minister intervened to get talks kick-started for the unions in his province. The hope was that any momentum would be carried across the border.
