THUNDER BAY — Thunder Bay’s public health unit says it’s still waiting for an answer from the province on whether it will receive funding for COVID-19-related programs including vaccine clinics in 2024.
Thunder Bay District Health Unit staff call that a “significant risk” for its budget next year, as it expects to bear continued expenses related to the virus.
Director of corporate services Dan Hrychuk highlighted the issue to board of health members as they set the health unit's budget for mandatory programs last week.
“Right now we have no indication from the province if COVID funding will be available going forward, and also what the requirements of the health unit will be… whether or not we have to continue to administer COVID vaccines for example, and how that will be funded,” he said.
In an interview, he added the health unit has received notice earlier in recent years, suggesting the province may change its approach.
“This year, the province has indicated it may not be available or it may be available for a portion of the year,” he said. “We're really operating with a lot of unknowns at this point.”
The question has significant financial implications, with the health unit spending well over $1 million on COVID-related programming in 2023 even before launching its fall booster vaccine campaign.
Hrychuk said the health unit could pursue alternative sources of funding to support COVID programs, and raised the possibility the province could leave it to pharmacies and clinics to administer COVID vaccines going forward.
While Hrychuk said the health unit has no intention of completely stopping its COVID-related services in January if it’s still awaiting an answer, it calls its plans into question.
“If this funding wasn't available, we're not at this point aware of what [COVID-19 programs] we actually have to do going forward after this year,” he said.
The Ministry of Health did not respond to questions about the situation by deadline.
