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

Lyons, Joseph

In Hamilton, public health is delivered by the Public Health Services Department and council serves as the board of health. As illustrated by Table 2 , there was an immediate increase in the City of Hamilton' s contribution to public health after SARS (2004), followed by a significant reduction between 2005 and 2007. Nonetheless, increases in provincial funding allowed for an increase of HPHS' s cost-shared program funding. The rest of the period saw increases in the annual levy in the range of 1.3 to 2.8%, except for 2011 when the increase was negligible. Taken over the entire period, HPHS' s municipal levy actually decreased by about 2% annually, whereas its cost-shared budget increased by about 3.9% annually. In comparison, overall municipal expenditures increased by an average of 4% annually. This is much higher than HPHS' s levy growth, but nearly the same as its cost-shared funding growth. On a year-to-year basis, the City' s annual expenditure increases exceeded HPHS' s cost-shared budget increases for nine of the 11 years included in the study.