Re: Update on Compensation Commitment Announced in 2016-17 Provincial Budget 2016-17

Dear Colleagues

As we all now know, the Government announced in their budget funding for compensation related to interprofessional primary care teams. Specifically, the commitment stated: “To ensure these clinics (CHCs, NPLCs, FHTs, AHACs and nursing stations) can effectively recruit and retain qualified interprofessional staff in primary care settings, Ontario will invest an additional $85 million over three years.”

Yesterday, AOHC, AFHTO and NPAO met with the Ministry primary care team to get a better understanding of the implications of this announcement and to discuss an implementation plan.

This is what we learned:

• The organizations included in this announcement are AHACs, CHCs, NPLCs, FHTs as well as other primary care organizations and team members such as nursing stations, providers such as social workers hired by family health groups and other funded independent Primary Care NPs.
•  The funding for year one is effective April 1 2016.
• The plan is to rollout these funds over 2 years.
• The $85M is a cumulative amount but the annualized amount is to base and is permanent.

The AFHTO-AOHC-NPAO proposal remains our goal – we continue to advocate to achieve the 2012 recommended salary rates for all staff (IHP and admin) in primary care teams, to be implemented over 4 years. The Ministry recognizes that this $85M commitment is the first step in a process and is committed to working with us to achieve our overall goal. Two years from now, the opportunity for further increases is likely to open up.   The Government is committed to eliminating the deficit by the end of 2017-18 and some of the compensation constraints may be lifted for the following fiscal year. This will provide opportunities to address the remaining gaps.

Given this context, in the first 2 years of this rollout (the $85M), AOHC, AFHTO and NPAO continue to be guided by the principles that our members agreed to in 2012, specifically:

•  Increasing benefits from 20% to 22.5% to enable HOOPP
•  Placing all professions in the correct salary band, i.e. band corrections for health promoters, registered dietitians, and nurse practitioners
• Funding allocations that would equitably close the gap between current rates for each salary band and the 2012 recommended rates for those bands. These salary bands apply to all members of primary care teams.

Next Steps:

1. Given these principles, the MOHLTC is doing some calculations and developing options.   They have the full information they need for FHTs and NPLCs and are collecting additional information from CHCs and AHACs – specifically the number of FTEs per band.
2. Once these calculations are completed, the MOHLTC will reconvene with the three associations to discuss next steps.

The MOHLTC and the three associations are committed to getting you this information as soon as possible; but we need to ensure that we collectively take time to get this right and to ensure the equitable outcomes for all your staff. Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions or concerns at this time.