3 = YOUR COMMUNITY ‘| St a ae pare ine high ‘sc ‘Schoo! PH Shore Se the North Ghee ond in: Seale is aiebetine its 30th an-. § ear. Looking over some of. the trophies awarded each year to North | Read c co olumnist Les the bride PAGE 17 Bical RAL Ata Ree ren BRS NI EUT MAY EEC SOE. o Health share unfair, alderman says THE NORTH Shove Union Board of Heslth (NSUBH) is being seriously short-changed by B.C.'s Ministry of Health, according to a North Vancouver District alderman. Ernie Crist said Thursday the North Shore board, which manages the North Shore Health Department (NSHD), gets the lowest Ministry of Health funding percentage of all the 22 provincial and metropolitan health depart- ments, “We are losing a lot of money,” Crist said. *‘This has been going on for years, but we in North Vancouver just don't do enough screaming and yelling. So we pay for it." Seventeen of the 22 boards are provincial and 100 per cent funded by the province; the other five boards are metropolitan health departments and receive partial provincial funding. But funding from the health ministry to the metropolitan departments varies drainatically. For example, the Richmond health department, which services a population of 104,999, gets 47.2 per cent ($962,275) of its $2 mil- lion preventive programs budget from the ministry. But its North Shore counterpart, which services 142,000 people, gets only 2.5 per cent ($63,835) of its $2.4 million preventive programs budget from the health ministry. The Burnaby health department, servicing almost the same size population as the NSHD with a similar. $2.4 million preventive programs budget, has 36.4 per cent of that budget funded by the ministry. Dr. Brian O’Connor, the North Shore's chief medical health of- ficer, said NSUBH representatives met with Health Minister Peter Dueck in July to present the board's case and appeal for addi- tional funds. The minister, he said, was sym- pathetic to the NSUBH, and promised funds would be included in his ministry's submission to the next provincial budget to begin improving payments to the NSUBH. “But in the current climate of restraint and hospital budget cut- backs, my interpretation is that it would be very difficult to see any new funds allotted,’’ O’Connor said. ‘'We are not terribly positive we will be looked after.”* Health ministry spokesman Terry Moran said Thursday the By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter ministry was aware of the NSUBH problem: ‘‘We recognize there is cause for concern...but it is in the process of being addressed.”’ Moran said the adjusted provin- cial contribution to the NSUBH's total $4.6 million 1987 budget was 44.7 per cent. Approximately $1.8 of the pro- vincia) contribution pays for the board’s home nursing and long- term care programs. Community care facility licensing accounts for a further $141,000. The balance is paid by the NSUBH's four remaining partners: North Vancouver's School District 44 and the three North Shore municipalities, West Vancouver’s School District 45 officially dropped out of the NSUBH partnership as of July 31, 1987 after paying a final partnership installment of $156,499 for January to July 1987. It now contracts its health services from the NSUBH and will no longer be 2 funding partner. The NSUBH, which has been operating under tight fiscal restraint guidelines for the past six years, must also service areas, such as the Village of Lions Bay, that are within its geographic bound- aries but do not necessarily con- tribute through the municipal tax base to the NSHD’s support. O'Connor said if District 44, which contributes the largest por- tion of NSUBH partnership funds, were to opt out of the partnership as had the West Vancouver school district and increased provincial funding failed to materialize, ‘‘the municipalities would have to pick up the slack or we would have to consider severely cutting into med- ical health services.” District 44 contributed $797,991 to the NSUBH’s [987 budget, while North Vancouver District’s share was $510,357, West Van- couver District’s was $283,452 and North Vancouver City's was $265,693. In addition to home care and long-term care, NSUBH_ services include public health nursing, speech pathology, nutrition, dental and mental health programs and “* public health inspection.