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DSSAB budget back on track
Wednesday, 13 March 2013 - 1:53pm
It had been put on hold for two reasons.
Firstly, the DSSAB has been waiting for the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. to provide data on the changes resulting from the reduced assessment of the Resolute Forest Products mill in Fort Frances.
It is expected the change in value will affect the overall assessment of Fort Frances, meaning the proportion as to which municipality pays how much for social services will shift to a certain degree.
For example, Fort Frances currently pays about 38 percent of the total cost of social services under the DSSAB.
This share will go down due to the change in assessment.
“For every percentage that they [Fort Frances] go down, the other municipalities would share that increase,” McCormick explained.
“It gets dispersed among the other nine municipalities.
“Now in some programs, that’s offset because there is a [Township Without Municipal Organization] calculation, as well,” he added.
“And depending on the funding on that model in each of the programs, that can change, too,” said McCormick, noting that currently TWOMOs collectively pay about 16 percent of the overall DSSAB levy.
The second reason is the DSSAB has been monitoring the doctor situation in Rainy River to see if it needs to maintain a contingency fund for additional patient transfers if the ER there ever has to be closed.
“There was discussion of a third doc being brought in there now,” noted McCormick.
“They haven’t achieved that, but they have got a locum committed, I think, for seven weeks, so that does take a bit of pressure off there,” he said.
The purpose of the contingency fund is to pay for a change in staffing pattern for ambulance service, adding a full second car in Fort Frances to allow the staggering of vehicles.
So if the ambulance in Rainy River had to come here with an emergency patient, the ambulance in Emo would move over to cover Rainy River.
One of the Fort Frances cars, in turn, would move over to Emo for back-up coverage.
It then would reverse once the original Rainy River ambulance returned there.
By Duane Hicks
Area municipalities should know exactly how much they’ll be contributing to the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board later this month.
DSSAB CAO Dan McCormick said the budget is going back to the board March 21.
Firstly, the DSSAB has been waiting for the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. to provide data on the changes resulting from the reduced assessment of the Resolute Forest Products mill in Fort Frances.
It is expected the change in value will affect the overall assessment of Fort Frances, meaning the proportion as to which municipality pays how much for social services will shift to a certain degree.
For example, Fort Frances currently pays about 38 percent of the total cost of social services under the DSSAB.
This share will go down due to the change in assessment.
“For every percentage that they [Fort Frances] go down, the other municipalities would share that increase,” McCormick explained.
“It gets dispersed among the other nine municipalities.
“Now in some programs, that’s offset because there is a [Township Without Municipal Organization] calculation, as well,” he added.
“And depending on the funding on that model in each of the programs, that can change, too,” said McCormick, noting that currently TWOMOs collectively pay about 16 percent of the overall DSSAB levy.
The second reason is the DSSAB has been monitoring the doctor situation in Rainy River to see if it needs to maintain a contingency fund for additional patient transfers if the ER there ever has to be closed.
“There was discussion of a third doc being brought in there now,” noted McCormick.
“They haven’t achieved that, but they have got a locum committed, I think, for seven weeks, so that does take a bit of pressure off there,” he said.
The purpose of the contingency fund is to pay for a change in staffing pattern for ambulance service, adding a full second car in Fort Frances to allow the staggering of vehicles.
So if the ambulance in Rainy River had to come here with an emergency patient, the ambulance in Emo would move over to cover Rainy River.
One of the Fort Frances cars, in turn, would move over to Emo for back-up coverage.
It then would reverse once the original Rainy River ambulance returned there.
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