‘Tremendous support’ for mental health programs
Chamber welcomes business investments
After a decade of shoestring budgets, Shaun Baylis was delighted to learn that provincial funding might finally start flowing for mental health services.
Pathstone Mental Health’s chief executive officer said the base funding for mental health programs included in the 2018 provincial budget “will provide tremendous support to services” offered by the St. Catharines-based organization and others like it.
“For the past 10 years there has been no base funding, and every budget line has been stripped to the bone,” he said. “As a result, it’s coming to crunch time when you actually will have to close down significant programs to be able to have a balanced budget.”
But the province, he added, has gotten the message that “we are at a critical point and we have no choice but to be able to have some support or we will have to close down programs, meaning we will not be able to serve the numbers that are coming in.”
Meanwhile, Baylis said Pathstone Mental Health is seeing annual increases of roughly 20 per cent in patients being referred to the agency. Coupled with the lack of funding, “you can imagine how that can be very challenging and that’s why you have seen
“I’m focusing on the five per cent (base funding) that they’re hopefully going to be able to allocate before we move into the election.”
SHAUN BAYLIS
Pathstone Mental Health CEO
layoffs in the past from the different community agencies.”
Despite uncertainty about the promised funding due to the looming June 7 election, Baylis said that base funding allocation is expected to arrive before that date.
“I’m focusing on the five per cent (base funding) that they’re hopefully going to be able to allocate before we move into the election,” he said.
Additional funding, however, might depend on who wins the election.
If, after the election, the promised funding remains in place, Baylis said that funding could be used to support specific programs offered by agencies such as Pathstone.
In addition to the budget’s focus on social programs and health care, Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce pointed out significant investments to assist businesses.
In a statement released following Wednesday’s budget announcement, GNCC pointed out several investments aimed at enhancing business growth.
Programs being rolled out over the next decade include a $900million Jobs and Prosperity Fund, a $500-million New Economy Fund, the $85-million Ontario Scale-Up Vouchers Program and Venture Technologies Fund, and a $50-million Transformative Technology Partnerships Fund.
In addition, the budget will provide $120 million in the next three years to assist food and beverage industries, while electricity bills will be reduced for some businesses due to the elimination of the debt retirement charge on April 1, while also retaining the small business tax cut that was announced a year ago.
GNCC said it met with St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley and MPP Yvan Baker during a community budget consultation on Jan. 29 to share suggestions from the business community. Some of its suggestions — such as continuing to upload some of the responsibilities that were downloaded to municipal governments during the 1990s — were incorporated into the budget.
Still, GNCC remains concerned that the government’s spending could make Ontario’s fiscal position “more precarious” — particularly considering the $6.7-billion deficit included in the budget.
“As of last November, the government promised balanced budgets for 2018 and beyond; now, the budget will not be balanced until 2024-25,” the chamber said in its statement.