City of Lakes Family Health Teams in Sudbury are asking city council to give them a break on property taxes, a move that would cost about $30,000 next year.
And if the group opens its office in Chelmsford in the coming months, the amount would rise even more in coming years.
The health team is looking for a full break on its taxes because of a change in the way the Ministry of Health provides funding. In previous years, the province provided money for the team to pay property taxes.
“Under the current Family Health Team funding agreement with the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, the MOHLTC pays for the property taxes for the Family Health Team,” the report says. “Effective March 31, 2017, as a result of changes to this funding agreement, property taxes will no longer be paid for by the MOHLTC. The change in funding has resulted in this request.”
Officials are looking to have their rural locations designated as municipal capital facilities, which would exempt them from paying the tax bill. That includes family teams in Val Caron, Walden, and the one in Chelmsford should it open. The fourth location on Notre Dame Avenue is Sudbury is located in the municipally owned Pioneer Manor.
A staff report headed to the community services committee Nov. 14 says the city has made past investments in the teams as part of the city’s rural physician recruitment and retention strategy.
The family health teams have been around since 2005, when the province announced funding in an attempt to address the shortage of family doctors in some parts of Ontario.
“Family health teams provided an interdisciplinary model of delivering primary health care and comprehensive care that included health promotion, treatment of minor illnesses and chronic diseases,” the report says.
The teams include family physicians, specialists, nurse practitioners and other related health care providers. They were created as joint venture between the province and the municipalities. The city’s contribution included providing space in surplus municipal properties – the former town offices in Valley East, Walden and Chelmsford.
“Capital costs for renovation of the properties for the Family Health Teams were cost shared with the province, 50/50 for Pioneer Manor, Walden and Valley East and 65/35 for Chelmsford,” the report says. “The municipal share of the capital investment in the four FHT locations is approximately $2.1 million of the total investment of $3.7 Million.”
Each location signed a 10-year lease agreement, which included the city maintaining and repairing the municipally owned buildings and the FHT paying for the operating costs of their lease space, such as utilities and property taxes.
If approved, each year the city would forgo $19,126 in property taxes from the Val Caron location; $10,472 from Walden; and, an estimated $18,959 from Chelmsford.
