Belleville and Quinte West will be paying more for public health under a new allocation system.
The province pays 75% and the municipalities 25% of the Hastings Prince Edward public health budget.
The change comes about because of a change in the formula for determining the municipal payments.
In the past, the formula was based on figures from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, MPAC, which used electoral numbers.
The new formula is based on Statistics Canada’s numbers, representing the entire population.
Finance Committee Chair Belleville Councillor Jack Miller tells Quinte News, “For instance, Belleville under MPAC used to be 38,000 and obviously under Stats Canada it’s 50,000…”
He says it will begin in 2019.
Miller says, “The decision is based on fairness. The population numbers from MPAC weren’t accurate, (they were) old and did not reflect today’s reality.” The decision was made by all eight municipal members of the board, and approved by the board on Wednesday.
Figures from Board of Health indicate the following:
Belleville increase – 5.1% or $52,568
Quinte West increase – 5% or $44,452
Hastings County decrease – 5.3% or $47,585
Prince Edward County decrease – 8.6% or $49,435
