Transitional funding from the province and layoffs have helped ease the budget challenges Public Health Sudbury and Districts is facing this year, but the outlook for 2021 and beyond is cloudy.
That was the message from Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, medical officer of health, as she presented the health unit's $26 million budget to city council Tuesday evening.
“It has been a challenging year for the budget,” Sutcliffe said, in presenting spending plans that includes an increase of $734,000 from local taxpayers, up 10 per cent compared to 2019.
While they have since backtracked, the provincial government announced in August plans to reduce the number of health units in Ontario from 35 to 10, while slashing funding across the board. Without that cut, Sutcliffe said the 2020 budget increase would have been just 2.7 per cent.
In Sudbury, provincial funding is declining by $1.17 million in 2020. When combined with $762,000 in fixed cost increases – for collective bargaining, hydro increases, etc. -- Public Health was facing a $1.9 million budget hole.
They cut the equivalent of five full-time positions to save $522,000, and the province is providing one-time funding of $600,000. The rest is being made up by the $743,000 increase to local taxpayers, bringing the city's total contribution to the budget to $6.95 million.
Next year, however, Public Health will have another $1.2 million budget hole, an amount that will rise to $1.8 million in 2022. Sutcliffe said the province has pressed paused on its plans while it consults with health units across the province about how to move forward.
She said Northern Ontario would likely be rolled into a single regional health unit if the Doug Ford government proceeds with the plans it announced in August.
“The province has pushed a reset button on this,” Sutcliffe said. “(So) there’s a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the structure of public health ... We don’t know what will occur.”
But reviews and discussions are ongoing, she said, and they are hoping the government will listen. Spending money now helps prevent much costlier public health issues later on.
“Public health investment decisions require public and political will,” Sutcliffe said. “Every dollar invested in public health locally brings a return of $4.”
