Last week's announcement that the provincial government will begin paying a larger share of the cost of regional health projects is encouraging news, says The Health Foundation's executive director, Ross Fisher.
Under the new formula, municipalities will be responsible for paying just 20 percent of the cost of projects such as long-term care facilities while the province will pay 80 percent, in contrast to the old 35/65 split."This is a very welcome development," says Fisher. "It will certainly make it easier in the future as we revitalize some of our long-term care facilities and some of the hospitals in our region."
Fisher is also excited about getting more value from contributions, as the change effectively requires the government to match every local dollar with four dollars of its own-more than double the old figure. The over six million dollars of local cash that helped build Yorkton's $18 million multi-use nursing facility in 2005, for example, could have built a facility worth $30 million using the new formula.
"For our six million, we could have put in another couple of additions. We could have run a tunnel over to the hospital. There were a number of things you could do that we didn't do because coming up with a six million dollar share was hard enough."
The Health Foundation of East Central Saskatchewan is an independent group that assists with fundraising for improved health services in the Sunrise Health Region.
