Sudbury councillors to vote on budget as PET scanner decision looms

Sudbury may be moving forward with a new budget tonight after citycouncillors vote on a lengthy list of spending options.

If the hospital really needed this piece of equipment they would have it by now.- Sudbury Coun. Lynne Reynolds

Councillors will be able to rank and vote onproposals, including one that calls fora one-time grant of $1 million for apositron emission tomography (PET) scanner. This nuclear medicine imaging test "can be used to evaluate normal and abnormal biological function of cells and organs," according to cancer.ca.

In order to get this scanner, the community must be able to raise the required funds.Coun.Joscelyne Landry-Altmannsaid shewants the city to pay for the cancer-detecting equipment.However, councillors such as Lynne Reynolds say they'renot so quick to conclude that the money should come out of the city's budget.

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"You know, I'm thinking if the hospital really needed this piece of equipmentthey would have it by now, and I'm not so sure that they want it or they think it's worth it," Reynolds said.

Not only can these scanners be used to detect certain diseases before they do serious damage, but the provincial government has already vowed to cover its operating costs in Sudbury, which includesup to $1.6 million in annual operating funding starting in April.

"If we pay for the whole kit and caboodle, they're going to make the north wait," Coun. Rene Lappierresaid in reference to the provincial government. "They're going to say look they waited long enough for the PET scanner, we didn't have to pay a thing, they raised it themselves. So, I don't want to be in that predicament."

Lappierrestressed that health care costs should be covered by the province and it shouldn't be up to the city to pay for the whole thing.

To date, $1 million has been raised for the scanner but another million is required to pay for it.