City council may not have final influence over a possible name change for the new Mills Memorial Hospital building, but its meetings continue to be a focal point for debate over the issue.
Council has, however, expressed support for a name in Sm’álgyax, the language spoken by the Tsimshian peoples.
Susan Broughton and George Chinn appeared as a joint delegation before council April 8 expressing their opposition to the idea.
Speaking first, Broughton advocated for a change to the hospital’s name but not one in Sm’algyax and instead to Mills Memorial Regional Hospital.
“There’s a lot of concern out there because this person or this village wants one name, the other village wants it another,” she said.
“So by putting the word ‘regional’, you’re looking at covering a lot of ground, a lot of areas that it serves,” she added in asking council members for their support.
In a short history of the hospital, Broughton told council members the current name respects the work of Dr. Stanley Mills who, along with his wife Edith, who was a nurse, died in a house fire in 1961.
Chinn followed Broughton saying he has been told the Kitselas First Nation does not want a name change and wanted to know exactly who is behind the effort to change the name.
He suggested keeping the name of Mills Memorial Hospital but then adding a name in Sm’algyax, likening the idea to the two official languages of Canada.
“I go down to the store to buy a can of beans and it’s in English and it’s in French. So why not settle the argument? Make everybody happy. Leave it the way it is and add something below it,” Chinn said.
Coun. Dave Gordon, acting as chair in the absence of Mayor Sean Bujtas, told Broughton and Chinn council had already made its decision supporting a name change to Sm’alygax and they should now take their case to Northern Health.
“They ultimately make the decision on the name of the hospital,” he said.
Coun. Brian Downie felt something inside the new building describing the contribution of Dr. Stanley Mills might be a more effective way of recognizing his health care service.
He also added Bill and Helene McRae to the conversation as people deserving recognition.
The couple not only raised money for decades to support the current hospital but it was Bill McRae who gathered together a small group of residents in the late 1950s to buy and then donate the land upon which the current and new building now sit.
“Make our history a part of the new hospital. So I think there’s ways of doing that,” said Downie.
Coun. James Cordeiro wondered if people weren’t getting ahead of themselves, noting there is a provincial policy that speaks to name changes of structures.
“If the opportunity for naming recognition is to replace an existing name, consideration should be given to the history or legacy of the current name and whether the existing name might be incorporated into the proposed new name,” he said citing Section 5.4 of the four-page policy direction.
The name issue arose in late February when the words “Mills Memorial Hospital” were affixed to the east side of the new structure.
Northern Health then attempted to cover up the words, saying no decision has been made on what should happen. It has been silent since on providing more information.
But in 2023, it did provide an example of the use of Section 5.4 in what was called the companion naming for G.R. Baker Hospital in Quesnel. As part of a $27 million project to provide a new ER and a new intensive care unit at the hospital, the words ‘The People are Healing’ were added in two First Nations languages used in the Quesnel and Cariboo area.
Dune Soonunakehududzuk was added in the Dakelh (Carrier) language and Deni Belh ?Ats’enanx in the Tsilhqot’in (Chilcotin) language.