Timmins is asking the Cochrane District Social Services Board to look in to the way municipalities pay for their services, like housing and EMS. Right now, Timmins gets 50 per cent of the housing services, but pays for 63 per cent of the bill. We pay the same percentage for EMS, but only receive 42 per cent of the services.
Mayor Steve Black says the board is now looking into expanding EMS into a 24 hour system for all of the municipalities, but that’s going to mean additional costs for Timmins. He says that will add another $400,000 or $500,000 to the Timmins bill, which isn’t cost effective.
He says right now, those extra costs equal out to around $1.7 million. So he says if the DSSAB can lower that subsidy down to $1 million, the city can take on the additional $500,000. That will bring our bill back up to $1.5 million, but every municipality will get 24 hour EMS, as opposed to the on-call system a lot have in place now.
The new funding model is now being voted on, and should come back in about a month.