The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has approved its budget for 2017. Now, it just needs to hear back from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
The health unit has bumped its budget up to $13.9-million. That includes a 4% increase from in funding from the province and a 4% increase from its municipal partners.
The municipal share will work out to a total of $2.9-million from the City of Windsor, $2.4-million from the County of Essex and $2,300 from Pelee Island.
Unlike the province, they don't have the option of saying no.
"As obligated municipalities, they'll need to make that adjustment in their budgets," says CEO and Medical Officer of Health Dr Gary Kirk.
The province, on the other hand, can say no.
"We hear that we're not due to receive additional monies, but we've heard this for a number of years in the past," says Kirk. "Yet, we know we are among those health units they're trying to get to parity, so we think we have a good chance."
The budget calls for five new hires in a health unit with a staff complement of 240. If the province denies the funding increase, Kirk says it will have to look at cost-cutting instead.
"We'll look to see if there's anything that we don't need to do, and then to this table and we talk about what the next steps are," he says.
Kirk believes the increase in staffing levels is justified because of the particular health challenges residents in Windsor-Essex face.
"The diabetes rates are high here. We know that there is more smoking than we would like here. People don't practice activity enough," says Kirk. "Building a more robust health unit means that we can have people working on those things from an educational point of view."
The budget will be implemented right away.
- With files from Ricardo Veneza.
