TORONTO - The chairman of Toronto's board of health says the province has notified health units across Ontario their funding will be cut immediately.
Joe Cressy - who is also a Toronto city councillor - says the cuts will mean Toronto Public Health will lose $1 billion in funding over the next decade.
He says the Ministry of Health delivered the news Thursday afternoon in a conference call with public health units ahead of the long weekend.
A spokeswoman for the Minister of Health says Cressy is sowing confusion over changes to public health cost-sharing between the province and municipalities.
Cressy says the long list of affected programs includes disease prevention, water quality testing, and immunization monitoring and surveillance.
Ontario's government has announced a number of funding cuts that it says will help deal with the province's $11.7-billion deficit.
"These cuts, and I say this without an ounce of exaggeration will result in the loss of human lives, that's not rhetoic, that's a fact," he said.
Cressy said this year's TPH budget of $255 million will now be down $86 million and we are now going back to the pre-SARS and Walkerton outbreak funding models.
"Currently the province provides 100 per cent funding for some funding and 75 per cent for other programs," he said. "Going forward they will provide 50 per cent for everything."
With files from Lucas Meyer