Cuts could cost Niagara taxpayers up to $4M
Niagara taxpayers could be paying as much as $4-million more next year, covering the cost of provincial funding cuts announced by Premier Doug Ford, Monday.
And that’s on top of costs that may be associated with previously announced provincial cuts at a time when the Region is already struggling with millions of dollars in needed infrastructure repairs and upgrades, said Niagara Regional Chair Jim Bradley.
Bradley said municipal leaders from across Ontario listened with “much apprehension” during the Association of Municipalities of Ontario Conference in Ottawa on Monday, as Ford announced plans to cut funding for public health departments and child care funding.
The changes, taking effect at the start of next year, will have a “substantial impact on local taxpayers,” as municipal governments across Ontario choose to either abandon those “essential services” or assume the additional cost.
In Niagara, Bradley said regional staff “anticipate that it could be anywhere between $1.8million and $4-million in terms of the impact, when you look at things like public health and social services and children’s services.”
“It’s not as though it’s some frill,” he said.
Bradley said the work done by public health departments, for instance, have a significant impact on the overall health of the communities they serve.
“In many ways, it’s the preventative end of the health care stream. It’s out inspecting premises to ensure they’re clean and the public is protected. There are vaccinations, there are consultations with new mothers — almost all things they’re talking about in terms of public health look at the preventative end of things.”
The province’s plan for public health department will limit provincial funding to 70 per cent across the province, while municipalities will be required to pitch in 30 per cent of the cost.
Although the change could mean Niagara will have to pitch in about three per cent more, acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Mustafa Hirji said the funding the department receives is complicated.
Hirji said Niagara’s public health funding comes from 21 different sources and two different ministries, in addition to frequent one-time grants for specific uses.
“As a consequence of all this complexity, there are numerous different ways to calculate the provincial funding ratio. This understandably makes comparisons difficult as well,” he said in an e-mail.
However, Hirji said the province appears to be looking at limiting a portion of the current public health funding sources, through which Niagara currently receives 73 per cent of its funding from the province.
“The above number does not capture all provincial funding for public health, nor does it capture indirect levy funding of public health,” Hirji added.
Ford also announced funding changes for child care, which will now require municipalities to assume 20 per cent of the cost of creating new child care spaces.
Welland Coun. Pat Chiocchio, co-chair of Niagara’s public health and social services committee, said he was scheduled to meet with provincial representatives to discuss concerns about the impact previously announced funding changes are already having on local families, requiring them to pay for child care services upfront.
The additional changes, he added, will “affect the most vulnerable even more so.”
Although Ford also announced transitional funding to help some municipalities cope with the changes, Chiocchio said details have yet to be released.
“I think it caught everybody off guard, until we get more details on that we’re still in the stage of trying to figure out what the cost of everything will be,” he said.
Bradley said income taxes are a more appropriate funding source for social service programs, compared to the property taxes that municipal governments collect.
“I think we all recognize that it (property tax) doesn’t take into account a person’s ability to pay,” Bradley added. “If a person is unemployed for a year, it may be that the person isn’t paying any income tax or substantially less income tax. But when the property tax shows up, it’s the same property tax bill.”