OttawaThe Ottawa Board of Health’s draft budget will go to Ottawa City Council for review on Wednesday. The board has requested $450,000 from the province to meet funding requirements to which it says it’s entitled under provincial guidelines.Province not meeting commitments to fund public health, board saysIsabel Harder · CBC News · Posted: Nov 11, 2025 4:39 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Ottawa Public Health looking to province for funding boostLocal public health officials will be presenting the Board of Health’s 2026 budget to city council on Wednesday. The board chair says more funding from the province is needed to meet public health standards.Ottawa’s Board of Health is requesting provincial funding it says is needed to maintain core programming, as it prepares to table a draft budget at City Council Wednesday. The requests include $450,000 in one-time annual funding to address financial pressures and for the Ontario Ministry of Health to fulfil its portion of costs shared between the province and municipalities.The province recommitted in 2023 to work towards funding 75 per cent of public health costs shared between the city and the province. But the Board of Health, which manages Ottawa Public Health, said only 56 per cent of OPH’s costs will be covered by the ministry in the upcoming year.The remainder of OPH costs will be covered by municipal taxes.The shortfall in provincial funding means OPH has had to scale back some of its programming, and health and safety inspections are beginning to suffer, according to Board of Health Chair Catherine Kitts.”We just can’t be everywhere and do everything with the funding that we’re getting,” said Kitts, who is also the city councillor for Orléans South-Navan. Ottawa Board of Health Chair and City Councillor Catherine Kitts said a lack of funding from is making it difficult to enforce health standards the province had put in place. (Giacomo Panico/CBC)”We have public health standards that have been put forward by the province. And at times we’re not even meeting them because [of] the lack of funding,” she added.Despite funding shortfalls, the province remains the board’s primary funding source.CBC asked the Ministry of Health why it was not fulfilling the funding formula it had proposed and leaving the difference to be covered by municipal taxes.”Our government has made record investments to support public health units (PHUs) across the province, including a nearly 27 per cent increase in funding to Ottawa Public Health since 2018,” a spokesperson for the minister wrote in an emailed statement.”We are also developing a long-term sustainability plan to ensure the public health units have more predictable funding, and we’re continuing to work with partners to restore the 75 per cent provincial, 25 per cent municipal cost share ratio, while also providing PHUs, including Ottawa Public Health, with an annual increase to base funding each year since 2023.”Annual increases insufficient, board saysThe Ministry of Health provides public health organizations with a one per cent annual increase in base funding per year for three years. Ottawa’s board is requesting the ministry increase that number to three to four per cent to cover rising costs of living and benefits for staff.In a meeting on Nov. 3, Mohammad Kibria, manager of policy, Indigenous health and business administration support at OPH, said despite the annual increases to funding, the proportion of the budget funded by the province is declining.“This widening gap isn’t the result of new programs or expanded services,” Kibria said. “It reflects the growing cost of simply maintaining the same provincially mandated programs without corresponding increases in provincial funding.”A graph presented to the board of health showed that in 2023, provincial funding covered 62 per cent of the board’s cost-share program costs, projected to drop to 56 per cent in 2026.CBC asked the Ministry of Health whether it would be fulfilling the board’s request for additional funding this year. It did not directly respond.The board has been in talks with the ministry, Kitts said, but does not have a timeline for when a funding formula review might be implemented.”We are hopeful,” she said. “I think we have a constructive dialogue with the province, but we need to stand up for Ottawa.”ABOUT THE AUTHORIsabel Harder is an associate producer and reporter for CBC Ottawa. She has also reported on Inuit Nunangat for CBC North. You can reach her by email at isabel.harder@cbc.ca.
Ottawa Board of Health seeks provincial funding as draft budget goes to council
