The municipalities that make up the Almaguin Highlands Health Council have a will to help the Burk’s Falls Medical Centre with its ongoing deficits.
However, agreeing on a way that delivers reliable and predictable funding so the medical centre can cope with the annual shortfalls remains the stumbling block.
Armour Mayor Rod Ward, who chairs the health council, said the municipalities have yet to agree on a funding formula. Despite this, several municipalities continue to donate money to the municipally-owned medical centre to help with its annual deficits.
The deficit for 2024 is still being calculated, but the 2023 deficit was a little more than $53,000.
Ten municipalities make up the health council and Armour town council decided on its own to cover 10 per cent of the deficit and contributed $5,348. But that one-tenth approach is not a viable solution, Ward says.
Asking a township like Joly with only 300 people to ante up more than $5,000 wouldn’t be fair, Ward said, noting it doesn’t have anywhere near what Armour or Magnetawan have in terms of households or tax base numbers.
Magnetawan made a $3,000 contribution toward the 2023 deficit and is expected to top that up sometime this later year.
Coun. Luke Preston, the Village of Sundridge's representative on the health council, said his council is making a contribution of $3,000, but that’s all it will donate.
“It’s based on what we can afford,” Preston told the health council, noting Sundridge, Joly and Strong operate their own medical centre in the village.
As for Strong, its health council representative Jim Ronholm said council hasn’t yet decided what its contribution will be or on what it will be based. However, Ronholm said he wants Burk’s Falls to get the deficit information to the municipal councils earlier than it traditionally has so they know what to expect and can create a line item for the annual deficit in their budgets.
Aside from taxation, the Burk’s Falls Medical Centre's revenue comes from renting space at the facility, a large portion of which is from the doctors who carry out their practices at the site.
But the medical centre also provides X-ray and lab services operated by Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) and it doesn’t pay rent.
This arrangement was based on an agreement many years ago where Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare would provide the services so long as it didn’t have to pay rent.
At one point during the Jan. 9 Health Council meeting, the debate turned to whether it was time to revisit the rent-free arrangement.
Members were split, with Strong’s Ronholm asking if MAHC would cancel existing services if Burk’s Falls started to charge the health care agency rent.
Cheryl Harrison, MAHC's president, was at the meeting through Zoom and offered what could be construed as a positive statement, although she stopped short of stating MAHC would start paying rent.
“Stopping a service because of rent is not the right way,” Harrison said. “We think it’s worth a discussion.”
MAHC puts its patients first, Harrison added, and it wouldn’t be a case of the organization saying “Sorry, we don’t have the money, so (we’re) pulling out the service.”
Following Harrison’s comments, Ward said this would have to be a discussion between MAHC and Burk’s Falls.
It wasn’t raised at the health council meeting, but when Armour council met for its regular meeting on Jan. 14, Ward talked about an alternative that may be worth considering.
Over the next 12 years, the Almaguin municipalities are contributing about $12 million as their share for the twin hospital builds in Huntsville and Bracebridge.
However, there’s an agreement where the municipalities will hold back about $2.5 million over that time, with those funds being applied to unidentified healthcare services anywhere in the Almaguin Highlands.
Ward wondered if using portions of this $2.5-million fund could be used to offset the Burk’s Falls Medical Centre deficit.
The surrounding municipalities are already setting aside funds for the twin hospitals, Ward said, “so it’s not a hit to our budgets since it’s already budgeted” for the projects in Huntsville and Bracebridge.
Ward left councillors to mull over the latest suggestion with no action taken on his idea.
The health council will meet in early February to again discuss the medical centre's deficit.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
