The indicator for total board of health expenditures is defined as the total board of health expenditures for "core and related public health programs and services", from all sources, including all government funding, user fees, one time funding, fee for service contracts, and donations.

Expenditure data are one of the most basic pieces of baseline information used to describe an organization. They provide context to other information that describes the size, scope, diversity and complexity of an organization’s operations.

Boards of health were asked to report on revenues from all sources, and to categorize their funding by whether it was for a core public health program, a program related to public health, or for a program that is outside the traditional public health functions. Note that these categories do not align with those used by the ministry in its Program Based Grant funding package, where "related" programs has a specific meaning; further details are available within the data definition for this indicator.

This report marks the first time that this level of information has been presented on board of health budgets in a way that allows for comparisons across the province. It is important to note that because this was the first time that this information was collected, the completeness and consistency of reporting within the funding categories limits the validity of comparisons between boards using this data.

Because boards self defined which of their programs fit within each of the expenditure categories, there was some inconsistency in the reporting. Based on the information gathered from this first effort to collect board of health expenditure data, future iterations of this question will be able to support more consistent data collection and reporting. Despite this limitation, the reported expenditure data give an overall sense of the relative range and scope of program spending across Ontario.

The expenditure data also begin to provide a picture of the complexity of managing the delivery of public health in Ontario, as evidenced by the variation in the number of separate programs that boards of health are administering. While some boards of health focus primarily on delivering core public health programs, others are providing a large number of different programs, most with separate funding streams.

Expenditures for public health programs and services from all revenue sources for all boards of health were reported to be $837.7M in 2007. Program funding is provided primarily by the three ministries with responsibility for public health: Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Ministry of Health Promotion and Ministry of Children and Youth Services. In addition, some boards of health receive funding from the federal government (e.g., for the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program) and collect fee for service revenues related to septic inspections.

Definition:

Total board of health expenditures in 2007 for "core and related public health programs and services", including spending based on revenue from all sources including all government funding (federal, provincial and municipal), user fees (such as Part 8 inspection fees), one time funding, fee for service contracts, research funding, and all other grants and donations. Excludes projected expenditures for EMS and animal control services, which are not part of the public health mandate.

Data Source(s):

Survey of boards of health, 2008

Formula:

Total board of health actual expenditures from all sources

Notes:

• Consolidates reporting on existing board of health funding levels
• In this report and survey "related programs" refers to a group of programs that are defined by public health units as ancillary to their core public health programs and services. This definition was used in the data collection for this indicator in order to allow public health units to provide information on all current programs regardless of funding source. However, when used in the context of the Program Based Grants (PBG) funding agreement "Related Programs" refers to a specific group of programs that are funded through the PBG grant and these are: Infectious Diseases Control, West Nile Virus / VBD, PHRED, Unorganized Territories, AIDS Hotline, SIECCAN, Infection Prevention and Control Nurses (new in 2008/09), Small Drinking Water Systems, and one time funding received through PBG.
• The inclusion of one time or time limited funding may skew the reporting for some boards of health
• Lack of clear definition of categories of funding by "core public health", "public health related" and "other services delivered by public health" resulted in some lack of congruence in categorization across all boards of health
• Data were collected on expenditures by program, but did not include information on funding sources or cost sharing arrangements