District of Muskoka council is calling on the province to re-examine how much municipalities have to pay for their hospitals.
The motion, which will be forwarded to the offices of the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Health, and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing as well as the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, asks the province to re-examine the “local share” of the hospital capital calculation methodology to “better reflect the limited fiscal capacity of municipalities.”
District staff report between 2009 and 2020, $415.4 million has been transferred from municipal operations to fund and build provincial hospitals with another $117.5 million, as of 2020, earmarked as “long-term commitments.”
“The messaging shouldn’t be that we don’t want to support our hospitals,” Coun. Rick Maloney said, noting the district has funds budgeted for Muskoka’s hospitals. “What this resolution does is highlights there are some significant inequalities with the local share and the responsibility filtering back down onto the tax base.”
In the motion prepared by district staff, it explains that the district is required to pay 10-percent of capital construction costs and 100-percent of the cost of equipment, furniture, and fixtures. That includes medical equipment, which staff point out can be costly.
That, staff write, means the province covers 70-percent of the overall cost of a hospital’s operation and its capital projects, while the local share sits at 30-percent.
“It becomes very clear what is happening,” Coun. Frank Jaglowitz said. “It’s a downloading of costs.”
Bracebridge and Gravenhurst councils have also passed similar motions.
District council unanimously approved the motion.