After months of waiting for the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care to sit down with them, the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board is still wondering if the government ever will “show them the money.”
According to DSSAB, the ministry owes $1.3 million in funding for land ambulance service in unincorporated areas. But it has no clear indication from the government that it will pay its outstanding bill—even after a meeting with ministry officials earlier this month.
In that meeting, government officials—primarily Michael Mjanes, chief of staff to associate Health and Long-term Care minister Dan Newman—finally agreed the funding formula, which sets the base funding for land ambulance, needs to be reviewed.
In a letter to DSSAB outlining the results of the meeting, Mjanes wrote that “our first priority will be to look at options to address the base funding needs of the Rainy River DSSAB for the 2003 fiscal year.
“The final allocation of funds will be, of course, subject to the regular review process by the Emergency Health Services branch of the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care,” he continued.
“Once we have addressed the issue of ongoing base funding, we will examine the outstanding funding requests for 2001 and 2002,” he wrote. “The determination of funding, if any, for those costs will be dependent on available resources.”
“They use words like ‘the funding, if any,’” said DSSAB CEO Donna Dittaro. “I’ve been directed to write back and say that’s not satisfactory.”
She noted the amount owed by the provincial government for 2001 and 2002 tops out at more than $700,000, and that the budgeted costs for this year are $636,996.
“We’re saying, ‘Hey! We wouldn’t accept that from a municipality so we won’t accept it from the ministry,’” Dittaro said of the province’s failure to pay.
She blames the confusion on a poor funding formula (all other ministries DSSAB deals with have provisions to pick up costs for unincorporated areas when there isn’t a sufficient population base to support the services) as well as poor planning by the ministry in the budgeting process (considering they have no funds to use for the outstanding bill).
“It’s poor planning,” she said, adding non-sympathetically, “That’s tough!”
DSSAB also released its cost apportionment distribution ratios for Ontario Works, child care, land ambulance, and social housing for district municipalities at its monthly meeting last week.
The ratios will be used to determine each individual municipality’s cost share for DSSAB services.
In that report, the ratio for Fort Frances went down from 40.27 percent to 38.72 percent.
The costs through the rest of the district will be distributed as follows: Alberton (4.26 percent), Atikokan (14.48 percent), Chapple (6.62 percent), Dawson (2.63 percent), Emo (4.22 percent), Lake of the Woods (4.59 percent), La Vallee (2.88 percent), Morley (1.47 percent), Rainy River (2.32 percent), and the unincorporated areas (17.82 percent).
Despite a decrease in the ratio, costs to the Town of Fort Frances have gone up due to an increase in costs for programs. The town’s share has increased by $98,471.62 to $1,879,090.69.
Fort Frances Coun. Dave Bourgeault told Monday night’s council meeting that one of the largest increases came in the amount the land ambulance will cost the town—an increase of $143,033.68.
He attributed this, in part, to the redistribution of costs not being picked up by the ministry for the unincorporated share of land ambulance costs, saying that if the government stepped in, all municipalities in the district would see a reduction in costs.
“We’re demanding every penny of it,” he told council. “It’s not fair to the taxpayers of Fort Frances to get any less.
“We’re entitled to this money,” concluded Coun. Bourgeault, who also sits on the DSSAB board and chairs the land ambulance committee which is committed to resolving this issue with the ministry.
Dittaro said it will be mid-summer before the Ministry of Health gets approval for its budget, after which a review of the base funding formula can commence—something the land ambulance committee will be very involved in.
DSSAB also announced at its monthly meeting last week that the District Social Housing Corp. will be transferred into the DSSAB, moving all titles over by the end of the year.
“After the property transfer, the local housing corporation will be dissolved,” said Dittaro. “Social housing will simply become a department of the DSSAB.”
She explained this will save money and streamline the system, making it “less bureaucratic.
“The only difference you’ll notice is the letterhead,” she remarked.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
