Norfolk budget hits Haldimand as cuts made to shared Health and Social Services

By Kaitlyn Clark

The Haldimand Press

HALDIMAND—“Faced with significant financial issues – compounded by a change in the Provincial funding formula for public health – Norfolk County is restructuring in a number of areas,” stated a Norfolk County press release. While much of this ‘restructuring’ does not directly affect Haldimand, a $296,000 cut to the Health and Social Services (HSS) will reduce services available to local residents as the two counties share this division.

Norfolk County outlined a number of cuts made in their 2020 budget in the February 5 release, including the closure of a number of recreation and cultural facilities. The cuts include the elimination or reduction of a number of positions across the corporation, which included two part-time employees in HSS being put “in a layoff position”.

Norfolk says the majority of the cuts are in response to its $81 million in debt that the new Council is seeking to address. On the HSS cuts specifically it added, “Norfolk’s financial situation was made worse when the Ontario government announced last year that it was changing the provincial/municipal public health cost-sharing arrangement from 75%/25% to 70%/30%.”

An initial release from Norfolk noted that the cut of $296,000 is expected to “nullify the impact of provincial downloading”.

“The changes in Health and Social Services are not expected to have an impact on the public, as non-mandatory services are being transitioned to community partners,” said the release. “These include one-on-one sexual health services and smoking cessation programs. Sexual health services provided in schools will continue.”

The sexual health services include pregnancy testing, STI/HIV testing, birth control, and emergency contraceptive pills. While medical tests can be done at a family doctor’s free of charge, clients at health units currently have access to birth control at a reduced rate, which would not be available through a regular pharmacy. Haldimand’s portion of the budget will be changed to reflect the new levels of service, but the exact savings have not been confirmed yet.