Frontenac County Council - Aug. 27/11

Jeff Green | Sep 29, 2011

County Tackles Public Health:

During her four-year term as the Frontenac County representative to the board of directors of Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) Public Health, Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski often expressed her frustration over what she saw as a lack of transparency in the way the organization does its budgeting.

She is no longer the County rep to the Board, having been replaced by North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton for the current term of council, but she has briefed Clayton about her concerns.

She has also proposed, and Frontenac County Council has approved, a motion asking that KFL&A Public Health transfer some of the savings that have been realised as the Province of Ontario has increased its contribution for some shared provincial/municipal programs from 63% to 75%, back to the municipalities.

The motion also asks the KFL&A Public Health not use municipal money “to subsidise 100% funded municipal programs.”

Finally, the motion reads that, “The County of Frontenac is asking that the KFL&A Public Health Board’s budget process be fully transparent and that all use of municipal funds be identified throughout the process.”

“I don’t know if I’ll survive the Public Health board meeting next week or not,” said Bud Clayton after the motion was passed.

“Doctor Gemmill [the head of the KFL&A Public Health] will be attending our own meeting next month,” said CAO Liz Savill.

When interviewed after the meeting, Janet Gutowski said that “80% of Public Health boards across the province have decreased their municipal ask in recent years after the province uploaded some costs, and most of the other 20% are located in regions that have had large increases in population. The population is stable in this region, and yet we have paid increases of 2% every year. That’s why I brought this motion forward.”