Projected Impact Of New Budget Still Unknown

Thursday, 23 May 2019 08:25

Council's recent report shows the estimated shortfall for the 2019 budget comes in at close to $2 million dollars with potential impacts to Oxford County.

OXFORD COUNTY - Oxford County's 2019 budget will be impacted after the recent announcement of the provincial budget.

The estimated provincial shortfall for this year is $1.7 million, according to council's report.

Warden Larry Martin says that although the extent of the impact is not determined, the County's budget will be affected.

"It's definitely an impact, but it's hard to determine how much of an impact because it just comes down a little bit at a time and it's extremely difficult to look at the big picture the way it's coming at us. But it's going to have an definite impact but what the bottom line is going to look like, we have no way of knowing at this point in time other than it's going to be substantial."

Warden Martin adds the Board of Health could be among the services that are impacted.

He says council will be providing quarterly budget updates as new information is released from the province or sooner.

"However when they come through, the Director of Treasury will be, depending if it will be quarterly or it may be more often, depending upon how often the information and how substantial the information is so that we can stay on top of it in a timely fashion."

The information will be part of staff's quarterly Business Plan and Budget Update Reports, which will be presented at regular council meetings. Staff will also look to come up with ways to mitigate the funding shortfall for the rest of this year, along with planning next year's budget.

The provincial government announced their first budget earlier last month. The budget makes reference to a broad range of programs to be redesigned with the intention of focusing spending on what matters to residents living in Ontario. According to council's report, more details have gradually become available after the document lacked detail, and they expect more information to be released.

Some of the changes that are included are, but not limited to, an increase in municipal cost share for public health programs (from 25% to 40% over a three-year period), a potential funding shortfall of up to $1.2 million for Oxford County’s paramedic services by next year and increased municipal cost share for child care and early years programs to a projected shortfall of up to $563,000.