MANITOULIN—The Manitoulin Health Centre (MHC) has received acknowledgment and financial support from the province of Ontario that has resulted in a much lower forecasted deficit in their budget for 2024-2025 than in the previous year.
“We are forecasting a deficit in our budget of $275,000 which reflects a budget deficit of one percent,” said Eric Theriault, MHC vice-president of corporate support services and chief financial officer. “It is still a deficit, but not bad compared to what we had been forecasting,” he said when comparing the deficit to last years estimated forecasted budget deficit of $2.164 million or 10 percent.”
Mr. Theriault explained “There are many factors that have led to the forecasted budget being less than previously estimated. It took a lot of advocacy. The government has acknowledged that they are not funding small rural hospitals to the rates that they should.”
“We are not reducing any of our services at our two hospitals,” stressed Mr. Theriault. “There are some key things that led to this reduction in the forecasted budget. One of the biggest ones is that they (province) acknowledge the base funding allocation is incorrect for small rural northern hospitals and now they have started to correct it, so it is closer to par. As well, with our one-time allocations of funding in the past, the province has provided this at the end of the fiscal year, but this year they have allocated this funding earlier. This year things are a little more head on, but should be more in line with current projections.”
Mr. Theriault also explained, “there is still one outstanding change coming from the province that will affect our budget, to reflect theQ2 and Q3 wage arbitration revenues. They will be reviewing this and come up with a number for hospitals.”
