THUNDER BAY -- City council has given ReGenerative Medicine another lifeline but only half of what the financially struggling bone and tissue bank had asked for.
ReGen Med came before council early this month in order to ask for $300,000.
Council voted Monday to give the company the interest free loan in installments. ReGen Med will receive $150,000 immediately to keep the business afloat for another few months.
By January, council expected to get a full report on how the company will be sustainable. The company has already received over a million dollars from the city as it works to become sustainable. Judy Sander, chair of the board for ReGen Med, said the focus for the $150,000 will be on completing the sustainability plan.
“Until we do this sustainability plan we can’t move too forward with the province,” Sander said.
“The job at hand is really to continue gearing up these 40 sales people that we have across Canada and hand hold them as much as we can so we can get the best and fastest results from them. We would have liked the six months but we’ll take whatever we can get.”
Sander said she doesn’t ever want to come back to the city for money and will try to do everything possible Most councillors agreed that they don’t want to see ReGen Med back asking for more money.
McIntyre Coun. Trevor Giertuga voiced his frustration with the company and didn’t support giving them more financial assistance.
“We’ve been kind of running with a wink and a handshake,” Giertuga said. “I’m not going to support this. Before it was getting the sales team in place and now it’s getting a sustainability plan. What’s going to be next?”
City manager Tim Commisso reassured council that ReGen Med was on its way to becoming sustainable.
“What you have to understand is that they have received a lot of support initially, they’re fully equipped, they’re Ontario’s leading bone and tissue facility but they’re operating in a way that they’re having to execute all operations while selling their product and compete with much larger facilities,” Commisso said.
“There is a really strong case here on why this organization should be supported by the provincial government. What we’re trying to do as a municipality is trying to help them get to that point.”
