PARRY SOUND – The district’s 22 municipalities are paying more for ambulance service this year.
Parry Sound town council approved the Parry Sound Emergency Medical Services budget on January 17 that includes a 9.9 per cent increase in payments that municipal partners must make from their tax base.
The EMS asked for the increase in funding to help with staffing paramedics at the Powassan ambulance base, purchasing three new defibrillators for paramedic response units, increased contract costs and to build the planned helipad in Pointe Au Baril.
The service is also using some of its reserves to buy three new ambulances.
The Town of Parry Sound manages Parry Sound EMS, including decisions to purchase equipment. The West Parry Sound Health Centre delivers the service.
The 2012 budget came in at $7.8 million, with municipalities responsible for almost $3.4 million. The province is responsible for $3.1 plus an additional $867,000 for coverage on First Nation reserves and in unorganized townships.
“Right now it’s not 50-50 (with the province) because we enhanced some service in Powasson last year,” said Parry Sound director of emergency services Sharon Montgomery-Greenwood. “The province right now is paying under 50 per cent because they only pay what your previous year’s expenditure was. We increased staffing, only for half a year, so they’re only going to pay 25 per cent of that. Now we have a whole year, so we’re still behind the eight ball, we have to pay for that so that makes it difficult for us. Because of that, that’s why the levy increased so much.”
The municipalities’ $3.4 million portion is up from $2.8 million.
The levy is dived up between the 22 member municipalities based on the weighted assessment of property value within their borders.
For Parry Sound the increase is $20,000 to a total contribution of $222,645, or about 6.6 per cent of the entire EMS levy.
Seguin Township, the largest municipal contributor, will be responsible for an increase of $77,574 to a total contribution of $861,000 to cover just shy of 26 per cent of the entire EMS levy.
“We had originally started at our January budget meeting with a 12 per cent increase because that’s what we were told last year to expect,” said Seguin chief financial officer Michele Fraser. “So 9.9, while it’s more than we’re allowing our departments to go up, the 9.9 was a welcome number, not a real nice one, but it was better than 12.”
The increased budget isn’t attributed to only one factor.
“Those aren’t just increases in salaries and wages, we’re looking at increases in our fuel costs, look at where the fuel has gone,” said Montgomery-Greenwood. “We’ve changed how we do our standbys so we don’t have as much idling, consuming fuel and all that’s bad for the environment. We’ve kind of tweaked it and tried to get it under control, but that is one of the increases that has come up.”
In 2010 the municipal levy jumped 15 per cent and in 2011 another eight per cent. In 2013 the increase is scheduled at 4.25 per cent and by 2015 it’s estimated to rise 3.25 per cent.
“Certainly, anybody looking at the budget needs to recognize it’s a District of Parry Sound budget, it’s not strictly reflective of one municipality,” said Montgomery-Greenwood. “We have increased staffing to ensure people get excellent response times and good quality of care. And it’s status quo, we’re continuing to follow that path and we’re not seeing any major increases in the near future.”