At their most recent meeting, the board for the South East Health Unit approved a motion to harmonize municipal levies.
The South East Health Unit consists of the former Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Public Health, and Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit.
The three merged into one health unit earlier this year.
South East Health Unit Medical Officer of Health and CEO, Dr. Piotr Oglaza, says the board agreed that funding for programs and services should be split 67.5 per cent from the provincial government and 32.5 per cent at the municipal level, across the health unit’s region.
He says this means they’ll be working towards ensuring every municipality in the unit’s service area will be paying the same amount per capita based on their population, which will happen through a phased approach over the next five years.
Dr. Oglaza says without the merger, some of the legacy heath units would be facing a significant erosion of services.
The health unit says the provincial government is providing $4.3 million in merger funding over three years, to offset the impact of the levy harmonization in Lanark, Leeds, Grenville, Hastings and Prince Edward Counties.
***With files from Julia DeJong
