A new option is being proposed for municipalities in the Almaguin Highlands to solve a battle over the Burk’s Falls health centre's ongoing deficits.
The proposal from Jim Ronholm — a town councillor with the Township of Strong, as well as the provincial NDP candidate for Parry Sound-Muskoka for the upcoming provincial election — calls for a funding formula that recognizes while Strong, Sundridge and Joly already fund their own medical centre in Sundridge, residents of all three communities use the facilities in Burk’s Falls.
“So, it makes sense for Sundridge, Strong and Joly to absolutely continue to fund the building,” he said.
However, Ronholm points out Strong’s residents don’t use all the services the facility offers the way Burk’s Falls and residents in that immediate area do.
For this reason, he said, whenever a funding model is agreed upon by the Almaguin Highlands Health Council, it must take into account that Sundridge, Strong and Joly would pay a smaller percentage than the other municipalities.
The health centre is owned by the Village of Burk’s Falls and gets its revenue from the rent it collects from the doctors who work out of the facility, along with local municipal taxes.
There are several services offered at the health centre, including a blood lab and an X-ray unit overseen by Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC).
However, under an agreement reached many years ago, MAHC operates rent-free at the health centre in return for providing those services.
What revenue Burk’s Falls receives isn’t enough and results in annual deficits. The deficits are covered through local taxation plus voluntary financial contributions from surrounding municipalities.
Each year, Burk’s Falls asks the surrounding municipalities to make a voluntary contribution to eliminate that year’s deficit.
The surrounding municipalities have been meeting for months as the Almaguin Highlands Health Council to create a funding model formula, but an agreement has yet to be reached. Five options were presented in December 2024.
See: Five options floated to fund the Burk’s Falls Medical Centre deficit
Ronholm noted these meetings to debate funding formulas would become moot if the province provided the funds necessary to operate the health centre.
“After all, it is the province that’s responsible for health funding,” Ronholm said.
Other riding candidates running for office were asked their opinions including Matt Richter of the Green Party, PC incumbent Graydon Smith and Brandon Nicksy who represents the New Blue Party.
Richter was the only respondent and in a written statement said municipal politicians in the Highlands have been champions of the need to fully fund the Burk's Falls health team and clinic.
The 2024 deficit hasn't been calculated yet but the 2023 deficit was about $53,000 and Richter said it's “quite shameful” the Ontario Government hasn't provided the necessary funds that Burk's Falls needs.
Instead, the municipality has to go back to the property tax base to find ways to fund such a needed infrastructure and facility. “I wish the Ontario government had stepped up and prevented this whole situation from happening in the first place with appropriate funding,” Richter said.
Additionally, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said health care in Ontario is “dead last” among all Canadian provinces when it comes to per capita funding.
Schreiner said it would take an additional $12 billion just to bring Ontario up to the national average. The consequence is that “Folks in Burk's Falls are struggling to pay for the health-care services the province should be paying for.
“We will fix that with more funding,” Schreiner said.
Although the Graydon Smith campaign did not respond, when it comes to health care, the Provincial Conservative platform details its “Plan to Stay Open,” a program to deal with health system stability and recovery. It includes hiring up to 6,000 additional healthcare workers, freeing up 2,500 more hospital beds, reducing surgical wait lists and temporarily covering the cost of examination, application and registration fees for retired and internationally trained nurses.
Nicksy's New Blue Party lists several health-care initiatives on its website and several are COVID-related. They include holding a COVID-19 inquiry on the lockdowns and mandates, rehiring nurses and healthcare workers who were fired as a result of COVID mandates and ending COVID-19 vaccine mandates that still exist in Ontario hospitals and other sectors.
The New Blue Party also supports the protection and dignity of all human life from conception to natural death. It would defund elective abortions and offer healthcare choices, which include private healthcare options.
The Liberal party did not have a candidate named for the riding as of Feb. 9.
Liberal Riding Association president MacKenzie Collings was asked how an Ontario Liberal government would deal with the deficit situation at the Burk’s Falls health centre but received no response.
The party website stated fixing family medicine will be the single most important priority of an Ontario Liberal government.
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said people can’t find doctors, wait times have exploded and “Hospitals are actually shutting their doors to people who need help.”
The party’s healthcare policies include educating, attracting and retaining 1,000s of new domestic and internationally trained family doctors, modernising family medicine by making appointments available on evenings and weekends and stopping penalizing patients and doctors involved with care at walk-in clinics.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter with Almaguin News. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.