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For Immediate Release – October 24, 2006
STRONG COMMUNITIES COALITION URGES PROVINCE TO TAKE STEPS TO FIX THE GROWING FUNDING GAP FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES IN GTA/905
Toronto: There is a large and growing gap in provincial funding of health and social services between the GTA/905 and the rest of the province, which requires immediate action by the Government of Ontario in terms of how it funds key provincial health and social services, according to reports released by the Strong Communities Coalition today.
The Strong Communities Coalition is a new alliance of the United Ways in Peel, York, Durham and Oakville and the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance with the support of York Region Human Services Planning Coalition and the Peel Fair Share Task Force. The Coalition’s goal is to improve local and timely access to comprehensive and quality health care and social services in the GTA/905 regions of Durham, Halton, Peel and York.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis released by the Strong Communities Coalition found that there is a $1.5 billion annual funding gap - $551.5 million in social services, $993.7 million in health care services. The gap results from a $181 less in per capita funding for social services and a $246 less per capita gap for health care services funding received by GTA/905 residents compared to the rest of Ontario. In both sectors, the gap in provincial funding between the GTA/905 and the rest of the province has widened.
“The audit demonstrates that provincial funding for health and social services in the GTA/905 are not keeping pace with the huge population growth taking place in the regions”, said Shelley White, CEO of the United Way of Peel. “The result is that GTA/905 residents are waiting longer for services; or they are forced to leave their communities to access services or they are simply going without services, until their circumstances spiral out of control and they require costly interventions by the health, child welfare and criminal justice systems.”
The Coalition makes three recommendations to the Government of Ontario in its Growing Pains report designed to improve local access to health and social services for residents of the GTA/905 and to address growing funding inequities for these services in the GTA/905 regions:
1. Immediately provide growth funding for health and social services in the GTA/905 regions of Durham, Halton, Peel and York.
2. Revise the way the province allocates funding for health and social services across Ontario so that it is distributed on the basis of population size, growth and characteristics – that is, fundamentally population-based.
3. Develop a health and social services strategy for Ontario’s high-growth regions to complement Places to Grow, and that this strategy be developed in consultation with the GTA/905 stakeholders, including members of the Strong Communities Coalition.
“Increasing local and timely access to health and social services in the GTA/905 is one of the key ways to ensure that the province’s plan for growth will succeed and maintain the GTA/905 as an engine of economic growth for Ontario”, said Tariq Asmi, Executive Director of the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance. “The Strong Communities Coalition’s recommendations are designed to ensure that GTA/905 residents have to access to services that allow them to fully support their families, contribute to their communities and remain productive in their jobs.”
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For further information contact:
Dominika Flood at (416) 205-1331
www.strongcommunitiescoalition.org