During the recent annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, two regional mayors addressed major shortcomings in Ontario’s healthcare system.
For starters, Dryden Mayor Jack Harrison met with the Ministry of Long-term Care regarding municipal costs for long-term care facilities.
Harrison would like the province to look into balancing the scale of costs between the amount the municipality pays for long-term care and other services, and the amount in unorganized areas of the Kenora district pay.
“We had a delegation just discussing around the fact that municipalities pay into the long-term care but the unorganized do not, but they still have the same benefits of having their folks go to long-term care. We're looking for some parity there asking for them to tax the unorganized areas much as they do for public health as well as our Kenora District Services Board,” said Harrison.
Harrison said unorganized areas in the Kenora district have no taxation representation with the Kenora home for the aged.
He explained that if the unorganized areas were taxed, this would help relieve the pressure on long-term care.
“We think that would add to the funding model for long-term care and could help us increase beds in our area,” said Harrison.
With many municipalities experiencing aging populations, having enough housing for seniors is a growing need.
However, for those seniors, many are left waiting for a space to open.
“The wait time is extremely high. The last stat was around 2021. It was, if you're in the hospital waiting, it's over a year and if you're in the community waiting, it's almost 500 days. So, it's a long wait. We do need additional beds in our community that would help the situation,” said Harrison.
Harrison hopes that with the help from the unorganized tax base expanding long-term care could be a possible solution.
Municipal leaders also expressed concerns about staffing in health care.
During his delegation with the Ministry of Health, Fort Frances Mayor Andrew Hallikas called on the province to commit funding for retention and recruitment.
“We desperately need more physicians and health care professionals. I mean, as of right now, this instant, we need four full-time general practical surgeons. We need a full-time surgeon. We need a general practitioner anaesthetist,” said Hallikas.
“We spoke about doctor recruitment and retention and trying to level the playing field and assistance in trying to put programs into place that would help small rural northern communities recruit and retain doctors,” Hallikas added.
Hallikas spoke with parliamentary assistant Robin Martin, who he said was receptive to his concern.
An abundance of opioid overdose cases floods the hospital leaving exhaustive wait time on the public and extensive hours on the shoulders of medical professionals. The burnt-out staff are not applying to take jobs in the community because they cannot keep up with the demand.
“It's definitely a crisis because it's linked to the mental health problems that people are experiencing and the opioid crisis, you can't separate any of them out,” said Hallikas.
As well, in Dryden, drug-related crime strains the city's budget as the leaders weigh the cost of police against a modest municipal taxation rate.
Harrison insisted the cost of police has taken its toll on many different projects around the city, but he is hopeful that the OPP successes will lower the cost for the service.
Ongoing discussions between Harrison and Solicitor General Michael Kerzner have yet to yield results.
In the meantime, municipalities will start evaluating their municipal budgets to ensure what services are necessary and what services will need to be cut.
“It is getting to that time where everyone's looking at their budgets for next year and trying to figure out how to make it all work. It's crunch time this fall as we look at the numbers and service levels and try to make those fit,” said Harrison.
