The Independence of Ontario's Public Health Units: Does Governing Structure Matter?

Lyons, Joseph

As Table 1 illustrates, there was an increase in the municipal levy in 2004, in the immediate aftermath of SARS, and then it was basically unchanged afterward. Even as the City' s share of the levy remained at just under $6.2 million per year, the MLHU' s cost-shared budget increased by over 12% annually from 2005 to 2007. But these increases began to slow considerably from 2008. The provincial caps really began to take effect after this (as did the uploading of the PHRED program), and, as mentioned above, the municipal levy was nominally reduced beginning in 2012. Taken over the entire period, the MLHU' s annual levy increase barely registers at 0.4%, whereas its cost-shared budget increased by 5% annually. In comparison, overall operating expenditures for the City of London increased by 4.3% annually, which is only marginally lower. Indeed, on a year-to-year basis, the City' s annual expenditure increases exceeded the MLHU' s cost-shared budget increases for seven of the 11 years included in this study.