Public Health Sudbury & Districts asking for 1% increase in budget

Public Health Sudbury and Districts presented its 2019 proposed budget to city council at a finance committee meeting on Tuesday evening.

The 2019 operating budget includes a one per cent increase from the municipality.

Public health is funded by both the provincial and municipal governments, with the majority of the budget - up to 75 per cent - coming from the province. 

However, Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, the city's Medical Officer of Health, says there hasn't been an increase in funding from the province in years. 

She says they have seen an increase in the demand for public health services, with little increase in their budgets.

"So we know that the mandate of public health is growing, the needs in our community from a health perspective are growing but also we know that there is increasing challenges as it relates to the fiscal side provincially and locally," said Sutcliffe.

The public health board is working to balance the competing priorities, says Sutcliffe - trying to meet the needs of the community while under significant financial constraints.

And pressures related to government mandated programs and community health concerns, such as mental health and addictions, chronic disease, poverty rates and Indigenous partnerships, just to name a few have added to the need for an increase in the public health budget, she said.

"As we know there are increasing rates of chronic disease, increasing rates and concerns as it relates to mental health and addictions, we know that it's important to be an effective partner in helping to reduce those needs at the end of the day," she said.

Public Health Sudbury and Districts works with many different sectors throughout the city to promote health. Sutcliffe says that many factors that have an impact on health are determined by non-health sectors. 

"If you think about decisions that a municipality might be able to make, for example the kind of foods available in their recreation facilities," she said. Public health also works with many other sectors, such as transit, private organizations and schools to help make decisions about what's best for the health of the students.

"The work of public health, ultimately is to keep people healthy, so to prevent bad things from happening and to support health," said Sutcliffe.