After taking October off as usual, the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health is back, and kicking off the month with some fairly important information, including, you guessed it, the 2024 budget. There will be some information about that, and there will also be some information about how the current year’s budget is shaking out. We will also hear reports about the new strategic plan and public health communications.
NOTE #1: This meeting will held virtually online. To get the link you will have to send a request to join the meeting via an online form that you can find here. Deadline to send in the request is Wednesday November 1 at 11 am.
NOTE #2: The meeting begins at 2 pm.
MOH Update(s) – Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer will deliver her verbal report on current matters facing Public Health.
PRESENTATIONS: The two presentations this month have to do with the two Board of Health reports, the 2024-2028 Strategic Plan and Client and Community Support. See the full breakdown of those reports below.
Immunization Coverage in Schools and Licensed Childcare Settings – For the 2022/23 school year, 26.7 per cent of school aged kids in the region have incomplete immunization records, while 38 per cent of licensed childcare centres had incomplete records. That sounds like a lot, and public health notes that there’s still definitely room for improvement, but Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph is ahead of the Ontario average in all age and immunization-type categories.
Health Protection 2023 Third Quarter Performance Indicator Summary (January 2023 – September 2023) – These are the stats from the third quarter of 2023 (July, August, and September) covering all the inspections that Public Health did over the summer months, from the regular food safety inspection schedule to infection and communicable disease prevention and control.
2024 – 2028 Strategic Plan – After working all year, staff will seek approval for the new Strategic Plan that will guide the service’s work for the next four years. There are five priority areas or goals: 1) Improve health outcomes, 2) Focus on children’s health, 3) Build strong partnerships, 4) Innovate our programs and services, and 5) Lead the way toward a sustainable public health system. You can see the complete Strategic Plan by clicking here.
Client and Community Support – You may know this program better as the COVID-19 call centre, that’s how it began in the fall of 2020 and it’s been expanded in the two years since to provide support for all public health programs. WDGPH used to have separate intake lines, but the CCS has created efficiencies by using a single point of information so that everyone can get the same, up-to-date and accurate information. Between November 2021 and September 2023, the CCS has handled 42,000 community interactions, meaning an average of 1,826 calls, emails, social media posts, and walk-ins per month.
Committee (Verbal) Report(s) – While there is nothing from either the executive committee or the human resources committee this month, the finance and audit committee more than make up for it with four different reports for the full board:
Annual Facilities Update -> There were three big projects at the Public Health’s main office this past year. A dental operatory was added to expand service delivery for the Seniors Dental Program, four new EV chargers, and a new pergola to enhance staff space for breaks and/or meetings.
2023 Second Quarter Financials -> Since there were no meetings in the summer, we’re getting the second quarter financials a bit late. Staff were anticipating a $405,000 positive variance for the year-end thanks to staff gapping, lower professional and purchased service fees, and high interest rates on investment income.
Interim Third Quarter Financials -> Adjusted for the third quarter, the positive variance is now only $335,000 for the year, but the pressures are the same.
2024 Draft Budget -> The Public Health Budget is split into three categories from cost-shared programs, to 100 per cent Ministry of Health funded and the Consolidated Budget, which combines the first two. The part that impacts the local levy is the cost-shared programs, which for 2024 comes out to a 2.6 per cent year-over-year increase. It’s worth noting that the Ministry of Health has also delivered a one per cent increase to their funding for 2023, or to put that in dollars, it’s $111,975. They’ve also pledged an additional one per cent increase next year.
CLOSED SESSION:
There are three items on this agenda: There will be an MOH update about labour relations or employee negotiations and personal matters about an identifiable individual, and a Cybersecurity Assessment and a Reserves + Reserve Funds Status report, which are covered under the security of the property of the Board of Health.
SEE THE COMPLETE AGENDA ON THE WDG PUBLIC HEALTH WEBSITE HERE.
Guelph Politico 