The Charles Clark Medical Centre in High River is under new management, sort of.

When it was built, the Town provided the land, Foothills County took out an approximately $5 million loan for the building and the plan was the doctors group would pay down the loan by paying the county.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says the situation's changed along the way.

"The plan was the doctor's group as they went along and grew that the doctors would pay the debenture back to Foothills County and one day the doctor's shareholders group would one day own the facility. And that, at the time was what the doctors were looking for, they wanted some ownership in something if they were moving to the community, they wanted a stake in things if they were coming in," explained Snodgrass.

"What's significantly changed in the last few years is that new doctors coming to town, few of them actually want ownership in a facility, they would rather just pay rent and work which gives them a little more latitude with their finances etcetera.  Much like a lot of young people now, they're not buying homes they're renting homes."

He says because the building is in High River council felt it was right to buy out the county so there are only two parties involved, the Town and the doctors who'll be paying rent.

Snodgrass says the town is paying about $4.2 million from reserves so it won't impact their ability to borrow through the Province.

"It coincides with council's commitment to health care in this town because it is our, there's no question it's our number one asset for our community and what draws people here and what keeps people here is our availability to health care and we only see this improving with our commitment to it."

He adds they'll be able to bring in more specialists and doctors to continues to improve services.