Huron Perth public health shares concerns with provincial funding

Despite having a $27,000 municipal funding overage, Huron Perth public health is still grappling with budgetary issues due to the amount of funding from the province.

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In November, public health officials sent a letter to the Health Minister Sylvia Jones outlining concerns with public health funding in the province’s 2024 budget. At its February meeting, the board of health reviewed a Health Ministry reply that added additional provincial funding for the local health unit.

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The letter claimed provincial funding for public health programs and services through the Stratford-area health unit has increased by approximately $800,000 – or 6.5 per cent – ​​since 2020 when excluding COVID-19 investments.

The letter further stated that Huron Perth public health had received approximately $15.9 million in additional funding for the delivery of various COVID-19 response programs.

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“This increased investment is over and above the funding approved to support public health programs,” the ministry letter noted.

The letter also stated the province had shown its commitment to public health by restoring provincial base funding to the levels previously provided under the 2020 cost-share formula — $47 million in total, including $1.2 million for the Huron Perth unit — as of Jan. 1, 2024, while committing to a one per cent annual bump to the base funding over the next three years.

“It seems to me, in reading this, that it’s like ‘we’ve given you all this money. What are you complaining about?’ (That) was basically the theme of the letter,” board member Marg Luna said at the Feb. 9 meetings

Luna asked public health staff if the numbers provided in the letter were accurate.

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Julie Pauli, director of corporate services and secretary to the board of health, explained the numbers weren’t exactly accurate. She explained that public health had received funding for the new seniors’ dental program, which is not considered additional funding to the base funding program.

“It’s a completely new program that is funded by external dentists,” she said. “So while the numbers are correct, the $0.8 million is for that and the $15.9 million was for the COVID response.”

At first, Pauli said the numbers were “a little bit skewed” but added that may not be the right description for this situation.

Board vice-chair Todd Kasenberg asked if Huron Perth public health had received any other funding bumps for cost of living or inflationary impacts.

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“One per cent is actually moving backwards from a delivery of programs and services perspective, given the inflationary impacts,” Kasenberg noted.

Pauli added there was also a number of years where provincial funding was completely frozen, regardless of cost-of-living and inflationary increases.

COVID Funding

Pauli did tell board members that Huron Perth public health would receive its full ask in COVID-19 funding by the end of the month.

“We finally received the approval letter and the update to our grants listing from the ministry that we are receiving our full ask for all of the COVID dollars,” Paulie said, “so all of our expenses related to COVID will be covered.”

Municipal funding overage

As for the $27,000 in overage from municipal contributions, Pauli’s report suggested transferring those funds to reserves.

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In October 2022, the board of health approved a two per cent budget increase for the 2023 year.

“So we were given the understanding at that time that the funding formula was to be a 70 per cent provincial, 30 per cent municipal funded, with the mitigation funding coming from the ministry to top up the downloading to the municipalities,” Pauli said.

“When we did receive our actual funding increase from the ministry, we believed that we were going to be receiving a one per cent prorated increase to our base budget of one per cent, so basically a 0.75 per cent (bump) because it was for three quarters of the year.”

She said there was a $27,903 overage contributed by the municipalities as a result of following this funding formula. For context, Huron County contributed more than $11,000, Perth County kicked in $8,000, the City of Stratford provided $6,000, and the Town of St. Marys put in $1,200.

“Our current reserve balance without this amount is $16,978,” Pauli said. “It’s a very, very small reserve that we have, and those funds are not allocated to any specific thing, but they support any initiatives that the board might want to undertake, or if we have a shortfall we can utilize those dollars.”

The motion was moved by Bob Parker, seconded by Lesley Biehn and passed without further discussion.

The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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