The city could be delving deeper into the delivery of long-term care (LTC) facilities for Barrie.
Councillors will consider a motion tonight to have staff review options available for LTC and report back to them.
Deputy Mayor Barry Ward said he's unsure Barrie is getting its money’s worth in the current arrangement.
“The amount the City of Barrie pays for long-term care facilities, compared to the benefit to Barrie residents, has always bothered me,” said the Ward 4 councillor. “We pay millions of dollars each year and there are typically less than 20 Barrie residents in the hundreds of county long-term care beds.
“Simcoe County operates some incredible long-term care homes and it does so in an efficient way,” he added. “The reason so few Barrie residents take advantage of them is that they are located in Beeton, Collingwood, Penetanguishene, and Orillia. Most Barrie residents want to remain close to home when they move into long-term care.”
Ward said at one time Barrie paid its share of the cost of building and running these LTC homes based on weighted assessment.
“Which meant we were paying an incredibly huge amount for the number of Barrie residents in the homes,” he said. “A number of years ago, the city was able to negotiate an amendment in its services agreement with the county, so that the amount we are paying is now based 65 per cent on caseload and 35 per cent based on assessment. As well, the county has generously agreed to allow the city to spread out its payments for capital projects, so (Barrie) taxpayers don’t get hit with huge increases in a single year.”
Even with these improvements, however, Ward said he still believes Barrie residents are paying too much, based on the benefit.
“Simcoe County’s 2022 budget asks Barrie residents to pay $1.6 million in operating costs for the long-term care homes, for probably a dozen residents,” he said. “We are also being asked to contribute $2.1 million for our initial contribution to the redevelopment of Simcoe Manor in Beeton, which I suspect very few Barrie residents will ever use.
“This is only the first bill for a project which will cost $32 million in 2022. The entire redevelopment will eventually cost more than $200 million, so Barrie residents will be paying a lot more in the coming years," Ward added.
Ward said this just doesn’t make sense to him, so his item for discussion at Monday’s meeting asks staff to see if there are other options available.
He said the city is required by provincial law to provide a long-term care home for residents and has always chosen to do this through an arrangement with Simcoe County, since Barrie doesn’t operate its own long-term care home.
“I don’t think operating our own home would save us much, if any, money, but it might provide better service to Barrie residents to offer them a home they’d actually use,” Ward said. “Our services agreement with Simcoe County, which also covers paramedic services, social housing and more, is up for negotiation in 2023 so the timing seems right.”
City councillors will also consider a motion Monday to invite the County of Simcoe to provide a presentation to the finance and corporate services committee concerning an overview of the services provided by the county, the role of other levels of government, any legislative context for these services, how the services are funded by the province and the agreement parties, and to have a future discussion related to these services and funding.
This item for discussion is sponsored by Coun. Ann-Marie Kungl.
If Ward and Kungl’s motions are approved Monday, they will be considered for final approval at the Jan. 17 city council meeting.
