Municipal leaders are raising alarm bells of challenging times ahead because of Northwestern Health Unit levies.
Officials warn that in 2021 municipalities will have to pick up the extra costs for public health, which could run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The province is moving from 25 per-cent cost recovery from municipalities to 30 per-cent.
Health Unit Vice-Chair and Kenora City Council member Sharon Smith notes that’s going to have a huge impact on property taxpayers, noting it amounts to a tax increase of over 1 per-cent.
She says local communities simply can’t absorb those costs.
Smith is also speaking out on a proposed merger between the Northwestern Health Unit and the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
Talks have cooled off but Smith says it’s important to highlight the negative impacts on our area and notes the area is just too large for one Health Unit to cover.
“That’s 400 thousand square kilometres, 40 per-cent of the landmass of Ontario,” says Smith, “…for a budget of combined $30 million. I would suggest that any costs in amalgamation would be negligible.”
She stresses if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
