MAPLETON – Council here has authorized a three-year agreement with the LHIN on behalf of the Senior’s Centre for Excellence.
The current agreement is set to expire on March 31. The three-year Multi-Sector Accountability Agreement agreement is funded at $182,268 per year.
According to a March 12 report prepared by seniors’ health coordinator Helen Edwards, the agreement includes monthly installments to be transferred to the township from the Waterloo Wellington LHIN (Local Health Integration Network).
However, the status of the LHIN raised some questions from council, as the provincial government announced on Feb. 26 its plan to dissolve all 14 LHINs in favor of a new super health agency.
“So this is a three-year agreement,” said councillor Dennis Craven.
“There has been some talk at the provincial level that God only knows what the provincial government is going to do to our healthcare system.
“If something like that happens, would this agreement still be in place after that?”
Edwards said the WWLHIN can terminate any of its contracts with health service providers with a minimum of 60 days notice.
“I don’t think anybody really knows what’s going to be happening in the next few years, only that the government has shared that whatever process that they are thinking about taking on will take a number of years to develop,” Edwards added.
Councillor Michael Martin asked about the level of funding the agreement outlines.
“This number has been sitting at [$180,000] and change … for as long as I’ve been around,” he said.
“Is there built-in cost of living wage increases or are you sitting at a wage that is the same as when we first started it?”
Edwards confirmed that the funding has only been increased 1.66 per cent since the inception of the program.
She explained her assistant “is a contracted employee because we don’t have the room in the budget to have two Township of Mapleton employees with the associated benefit costs.
“So that’s how we have had to handle the salary portion of the agreement.”
