The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) will press on with its programs in the new year, having adopted its 2025 spending plan.
Members of the Board of Health met Thursday afternoon at Windsor's Caboto Club for the year-end meeting, adopting a $25.2-million budget for mandatory programs in the new year, a one per cent spending increase.
Health Unit CEO Dr. Ken Blanchette said it was important to maintain the services expected by clients.
"We're trudging forward with the funding that we have, and we're really focusing our resources on the most efficient plan going into next year," said Blanchette. "We're also anticipating the new standards that will be coming forward within 2025 as well."
As usual, most of the funding comes from the Ontario Ministry of Health, which will cover 71 per cent of the budget, and the health unit makes up the difference.
The budget will also maintain $3-million in funding for the Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program.
The spending plan will also cover the health unit's continued use of its Windsor headquarters on Ouellette Avenue after a proposed plan to move it to the University of Windsor campus fell through in January of this year.
Blanchette said that with the health unit staying on Ouellette for the foreseeable future, changes will be made to the building in 2025.
"We're looking at client waiting areas," said Blanchette. "We've been doing some retrofits within the dental space as well, updating some equipment in there, really updating the I.T. infrastructure, updating the space in the area as well. It's a very dated building, but it's time for us to move forward with those pieces."
The complete 2025 health unit spending plan can be found on its official website.
