By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
The actual figures don’t tell the whole story when comparing what the province spends on health care in Northumberland County and what the county pays.
This was the subject of a report presented at county council’s Community Health Committee.
While the province has never spent more than the county for health-care services that are provincially mandated, Director of Health and Human Services Glenn Dees said, it has spent a comparable amount.
Dees provided figures for 2015, 2020, 2023, an estimate for 2024 (pending an auditor’s financial statement) and budgeted figures for 2025. Each year has a provincial amount as well as a cost from the county’s perspective – from a levy perspective, Dees noted – as well as other revenue where applicable (such as residents’ fees from the Golden Plough Lodge).
Dees noted that the county share rose from $12-million in 2015 to $24-million in 2025, essentially doubling over 10 years.
A 2023 increase in the provincial portion is attributable to the Community Paramedicine Program, an outreach program that the province funds 100% – though this commitment is only good through March 31, 2026 (“The ability to sustain these services subsequent to this is unknown,” the report added).
For 2025, Dees noted, a quick calculation shows that the $24-million cost represents 30% of the county’s tax levy for that year.
He mentioned that the Association of Municipalities of Ontario is conducting a survey of member municipalities on this topic, for both information and advocacy purposes, and Northumberland will be participating.
“Thirty per cent of the tax levy is significant, and I think it’s something that really needs to be communicated out to the community, as well as informing advocacy efforts,” Committee Chair Olena Hankivsky said.
She also noted some other costs that should be part of the equation – social determinants of health, for example.
“There’s room for us to add more into this costing, particularly some of our social service programming,” county Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Moore agreed, citing addiction funding as an example.
“”I would very much encourage for those costs to be added, because they are very legitimately health-care costs,” Hankivsky stated.
Nitsch said that, when he reported Northumberland stats to AMO, he took the opportunity to add in such costs as treatment beds and the Port Hope walk-in clinic, and his AMO contact was agreeable to that approach.
Moore said that the cost-avoidance aspect should not be forgotten – the county’s funding of the walk-in clinic, for example, contributes to less cost and more capacity for the health-care system by preventing certain hospital costs.
“Our investments locally certainly have a multiplier effect,” she stated.
“I would suggest upstream and preventative work should be costed, because they have a value added,” Hankivsky agreed.
