DSSAB wins battle for funding with province

Perseverance has paid off. Big time.
At its monthly meeting last Thursday, the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board reported that after years of fighting with the province to re-vamp the funding formula for land ambulance costs when it comes to unincorporated areas they’ve succeed in forcing change.
DSSAB CAO Donna Dittaro reported that a meeting with Ministry of Health reps two weeks ago in Sudbury revealed a new funding formula to determine the unincorporated share of land ambulance costs would be initiated.
The good news is that under the new formula, the local DSSAB will be receiving the excess money to pay for uncovered costs for land ambulance in unincorporated areas for 2003.
“The $357,000 we know is a for sure thing,” Dittaro said of the uncovered cost from the unorganized areas racked up to the beginning of October.
“And it looks pretty good we’ll get retroactive [too],” she added.
Dittaro noted there’s more than $500,000 in retroactive funding for 2001 and 2002 that the province owes DSSAB for ambulance costs that couldn’t be paid by the unincorporated areas.
She explained all DSSAB managers are submitting their retroactive information at this time and the ministry is expected to make a decision shortly after it has received the requests.
“We’re all optimistic we’ll get it,” she said of the retroactive funding. “We sure wouldn’t let it go.
“It won’t be a long waiting period,” she surmised, adding it could be as early as next week. “So that was really good news.”
What wasn’t good news was the discovery that the new formula had a flaw.
“We noticed the new funding template had a mistake,” Dittaro said.
She explained that the province is to pick up 100 percent of the First Nations cost for land ambulance in unincorporated areas. But the formula wasn’t separating the First Nations share, according to her.
“I asked for written assurance it would be resolved,” she said.
But Dittaro is happy that the issue seems to be resolved and is proud of the DSSAB’s efforts in persuading the government in addressing the problem.
“It’s been worth the effort,” she said of the nearly three year fight. “This DSSAB has worked really hard to make changes. People across the province have benefited.”
Dittaro indicated that though the battle has been won with the province, the war rages on. She points to the way First Nations funding is distributed across the province and feels there is another fight on their hands.
“I think the province based their numbers on an estimate [of costs],” she said, adding that while the government is to fund First Nations 100 percent, what DSSAB gets is much less than that.
“I think they should be paying on an actual number,” she continued. “There could be places that are overfunded. I’m pretty sure that’s going to be the next big issue.”
And yet another battle is the sudden closure of the Judson Ambulance Supply Centre in southern Ontario.
“It’s where most of the ambulance managers in the province [other than in Toronto] purchase all of their equipment, including vehicles,” said Dittaro.
She explained that the government had indicated that the supply centre would close in 2006, but shortly before the election it “decided to close it on March 31, 2004.”
Dittaro added that with only two manufacturers in the country, DSSAB’s across the province will have to begin dealing directly with the manufacturers, costing them time and money. She explained that when the vehicles and equipment were purchased through Judson’s, they knew they’d get a reliable vehicle that had been certified.
“It’s a huge issue for just about everybody,” she said. “It has a huge impact on small managers like ourselves. We’ll start to direct our concerns to the government.”
Dittaro also explained that insurance costs for social housing providers in the district was addressed at last week’s meeting.
“Non-profit housing providers have seen a 153 percent increase in premiums [over last year],” said Dittaro. “We’ve been back and forth with the Social Housing Service Corporation. They’re supposed to save money with bulk purchasing.”
She explained that of the six non-profit housing providers in the district, their premiums have increased anywhere between 39 and 288 percent.
The worst rise in premiums was with Morley Municipal Non-Profit Housing, whose premiums have risen 288 percent, from $1,803 in 2002/2003 to $6,995 in 2003/2004.
“To see an increase like that in Morley is ridiculous,” said Dittaro.
Fort Frances Municipal Non-Profit Housing saw a 237 percent jump to $6,836, and Golden Age Manor in Emo saw a rise of 221 percent to $12,217. The Rainy River District Housing Corporation, which included the DSSAB building, saw a rise of 46 percent to $31,447.
She explained that the numbers could have been worse if the non-profits hadn’t chosen rates that included higher deductibles for this year.
“They have been encouraged to seek other quotes from a local source,” Dittaro said, adding that if they don’t resolve the problem for next year it “will have a huge impact on their budgets.”