Jump to content

      



























Photo

MS Centre closure North Park St. - saveourmscentre.ca


  • Please log in to reply
12 replies to this topic

#1 SusanneLR

SusanneLR
  • Member
  • 6 posts

Posted 16 October 2016 - 08:02 PM

A sad event is unfolding here in Victoria and we need the help/advice of the VibrantVictoria community. On August 2, 2016 the national Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada announced that they will be

 

·         selling the MS Centre at 1004 North Park, a place that many of us call home;

·         discontinuing the MS Physiotherapy and gym program, the only one of its kind in Canada; and

·         disbursing programs and services to other unknown locations or online.

 

The MS Society of Canada has not provided any information on where people with MS in Victoria and the surrounding area can go to participate in the many wellness programs delivered through the MS Centre. There has been no information to confirm these programs will exist once the building has been sold.

 

What makes this decision even more galling is that the building was originally owned by the local MS Society and when the local group merged with the national organization in 2001 it was sold to them for $2.00.  Now the national organization intends to sell the building for $3,100,000, take this money out of the community, and eliminate/reduce our services. 

http://calistings.cushmanwakefield.com/desktop_propertydetails.aspx?TransID=463023

 

Our options before us are:

1.     try and stop the sale; or at least delay it; or

2.    find an angel investor to buy the building for our use

 

We are working on the first option and hope to be successful, but we have a back up plan in the event that we are not.

We have registered a new non profit organization called the “MS Wellness Centre of Vancouver Island”.  We propose to retain the physiotherapy program and continue to offer all of the wellness programs that are currently being offered in the building. We believe we can run the building better than it is currently being run, through cooperation with other like minded organizations and optimizing the space through rentals. As a last resort we are hoping an angel investor will buy the building and allow it to be come a wellness for a variety of disabled people in Victoria.

 

But we do need your help. If you have any suggestions or advice you can give us as to how to proceed we would appreciate it.  In particular we are looking for legal advice as well as public relations assistance; to try to reach the board members in Toronto to let them know that this decision will have a huge negative impact on a very vulnerable group of greater Victoria residents.  Please go to our website if you are willing to help: saveourmscentre.ca


  • ninethreeseven likes this

#2 VicHockeyFan

VicHockeyFan
  • Suspended User
  • 52,121 posts

Posted 17 October 2016 - 05:15 AM

The TC article on this on the weekend ended with a bit of an eyebrow raiser:

 

The MS Society of Canada was given a B- grade by the annual Moneysense ratings of the top 100 Canadian charities in 2016. According to the rating, for every dollar raised by the society, 50 cents goes to programs. The rest goes to fundraising and administrative costs. The charity employs 78 people full time. One person makes more than $350,000 per year. Nine staff salaries range from $120,000 to $250,000.

 


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#3 Rob Randall

Rob Randall
  • Member
  • 16,310 posts

Posted 17 October 2016 - 05:30 AM

That's a lot of money tied up in real estate. If they refuse to lease elsewhere then at least buy another property with a revenue component like a retail unit.

I assume most of those salaries are physiotherapy and health specialists. Sounds like a good gig. How many people use this facility in a typical day?

#4 VicHockeyFan

VicHockeyFan
  • Suspended User
  • 52,121 posts

Posted 17 October 2016 - 05:39 AM

This article shows more employees, and a better breakdown of the top-10 salaries.

 

https://charityintel...ciety-of-canada

 

screenshot-charityintelligence.ca 2016-10-17 06-37-46.png

 

 


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#5 SusanneLR

SusanneLR
  • Member
  • 6 posts

Posted 17 October 2016 - 07:51 AM

The TC article on this on the weekend ended with a bit of an eyebrow raiser:

The salaries quoted are for those people who work in the national office in Toronto.  I agree they are excessively high for a non profit and we sure could use some of that money for the programs out here in the hinterland that they are going to eliminate.



#6 shoeflack

shoeflack
  • Member
  • 2,861 posts

Posted 17 October 2016 - 07:52 AM

Why don't we just go straight to the source...This is from their 2015 CRA filing. This is also a pretty revealing paper about the organization.

 

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, this is a very large organization with branches across the country. It has medical professionals on staff, and the fundraisers are evidently raising enough to cover their own costs plus $20-25 million for programs and grants. Pretty typical that large charities, and especially high profile charities like this one with a visible media presence, have higher overhead than smaller ones, as the smaller ones are more volunteer heavy than staff heavy.

 

But still makes you think.

 

ms sal.jpg



#7 SusanneLR

SusanneLR
  • Member
  • 6 posts

Posted 17 October 2016 - 08:04 AM

That's a lot of money tied up in real estate. If they refuse to lease elsewhere then at least buy another property with a revenue component like a retail unit.

I assume most of those salaries are physiotherapy and health specialists. Sounds like a good gig. How many people use this facility in a typical day?

We are indeed hoping that an angel investor will do as you suggest; buy a building that we can use.  The current ms building is perfect in that regard.

 

The salaries mentioned would be for the executive director, media person etc. and possibly the people who lead the various divisions across Canada.   Salaries for local people would not be that high.  We have one physiotherapist here in Victoria.  

 

The building has probably 50 people a day going through it.  We understand 2000 people on the island have MS.  We have actually heard from people with ms that they moved to victoria because of the centre. They were going to retire somewhere on the west coast but chose here because of the services and programs


  • ninethreeseven likes this

#8 SusanneLR

SusanneLR
  • Member
  • 6 posts

Posted 17 October 2016 - 08:14 AM

Why don't we just go straight to the source...This is from their 2015 CRA filing. This is also a pretty revealing paper about the organization.

 

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, this is a very large organization with branches across the country. It has medical professionals on staff, and the fundraisers are evidently raising enough to cover their own costs plus $20-25 million for programs and grants. Pretty typical that large charities, and especially high profile charities like this one with a visible media presence, have higher overhead than smaller ones, as the smaller ones are more volunteer heavy than staff heavy.

 

But still makes you think.

 

 

We are not concerned so much with the financial details of the society as we are with the policy decisions they are making that are negatively affecting people living with the disease.  It does not make financial sense to sell a building that does not have a mortgage and is maintained for $60,000/year (we offered to half that amount if we took in another renter making the amount paid by the ms society $30,000/year) and rent someplace else.  I don't think you can find a building anywhere near downtown with the parking and space we currently have for $30,000/year.  The national society was given the building for $2.00 and they are going to sell it for 3 million - it is purely a money grab.  To add insult to injury they are going to destroy a community who has used it for 30 years.


  • ninethreeseven likes this

#9 lanforod

lanforod
  • Member
  • 11,232 posts
  • LocationSaanich

Posted 17 October 2016 - 09:05 AM

^ hard lesson learned maybe, that there should have been a covenant put on the building sale...



#10 SusanneLR

SusanneLR
  • Member
  • 6 posts

Posted 17 October 2016 - 01:09 PM

^ hard lesson learned maybe, that there should have been a covenant put on the building sale...

We believe there was some kind of rider put on the sale at the time but the ms society will not allow us

access to the minutes to see what was agreed to.  You are right though - there should have been a covenant put on the sale



#11 Bingo

Bingo
  • Member
  • 16,666 posts

Posted 07 November 2016 - 07:16 PM

The Victoria MS Walk raised $123,971.50 in 2015.

If the MS Centre on North Park Street closes, I wonder how much Victorians will contribute on May 28th, 2017?

 

http://mssoc.convio....d=4982&pg=entry

http://mssoc.convio....d=5543&pg=entry



#12 SusanneLR

SusanneLR
  • Member
  • 6 posts

Posted 30 December 2016 - 03:24 PM

There has been further developments in our campaign to keep the ms building and services.  Because of our efforts in the media and the petition below the national MS Society has agreed to re-direct $800,000 from the sale of the building towards local programming which would mean $80/yr for the next 10 years.  Although they have not said how the money will be used we believe it will go towards staff salaries.  We are still evaluating whether this is adequate given that they got the building for $2 and will reap a $2 million profit

 

Please sign our petition to show your support for our campaign:

 

https://www.change.o...clerosis-centre


  • VicHockeyFan likes this

#13 Bingo

Bingo
  • Member
  • 16,666 posts

Posted 30 December 2016 - 03:55 PM

Please sign our petition to show your support for our campaign:

 

https://www.change.o...clerosis-centre

Did that back during the Halloween campaign.



 



0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users