The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit’s request for funding from the City of Orillia went up in smoke Monday.
The health unit has requested funds from the county, the district of Muskoka and from both Barrie and Orillia to “support initiatives associated with cannabis legalization.”
Shawn Crawford, the city’s manager of legislative services, acknowledged the merit of those initiatives, but told council committee there were too many unknowns to fork over the requested $25,500.
Council committee agreed. Their decision must be ratified at Monday night’s council meeting.
Crawford told councillors the city has received about $81,000 from the province to date - money to be used to deal with the fallout of the legalization of cannabis.
Crawford said about $36,000 of that money has already been earmarked by council to implement the new smoking and vaping ban on property owned by the city or leased by the city.
Crawford expects more money will be needed to carry out the new bylaw.
“Staff believes there will be further monies required to support the smoking and vaping ban initiative going into 2020,” said Crawford referencing the possible need for additional signage, further advertising campaigns and “potentially further hiring of a part-time bylaw officer” to assist with enforcement.
“Staff certainly recognizes that there’s value in the initiatives (the health unit is) proposing, but (there) are too many financial unknowns to support the request” for funding.
Coun. Ted Emond agreed. While he said he questions the province’s decision to cut funding to health units, he noted reorganizing and reducing the number of health units has merit.
“There’s gotta be a lot of wasted energy and effort” if every health unit is taking on initiatives such as this, he said.
More importantly, Emond said he has been “actively involved over the last several months in mobilizing the health care community in Orillia and area to potentially form an Ontario Health Team ... which would bring together all those agencies that are concerned about addressing those who are ill and sick … and all those agencies interested and have a role to play in preventing” sickness.
“What has saddened me is the health unit has not been a participant,” said Emond. “If they were to step up to the plate ... I’d be much more sympathetic to their request for additional funding.”
Coun. Ralph Cipolla tried to get his colleagues to delay a decision until there is more clarity from the province about how the reorganization might shake down.
He said council was in a “no-win situation,” noting the health unit has the authority to return to council requesting an annual increase in the city’s share of its funding.
“It’s going to come back to bite us regardless which way we go here,” said Cipolla.
In the end, however, he was unable to get support to defer the decision and councillors voted to decline the request for funding.
In a letter to council, the health unit said the funding would be used for a variety of purposes, including:- Extending their Curious About Cannabis Campaign;
- Developing and implementing a campaign focused on parents and youth allies;
- Conducting an Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey;
- Monitoring emergency department visits in real-time to track cannabis-related issues;
- Accommodating increased calls to Health Connection related to cannabis;
- Enforcement and related education etc.
