Management cut from 75 to 37

Health agency faces another round of cuts

The CISSSO’s next board meeting, March 10, will likely analyze the new budget. “We are anticipating cuts by the province of roughly $20 million,” said Geneviève Côté, Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l'Outaouais (CISSSO) spokesperson.

The CISSSO’s budget is dependent upon Québec Finance Minister Carlos Leitão’s next and third budget, due March 17, a dozen days before the new fiscal year, April 1.

“We have an $8 million deficit and our objective is to balance the budget by March 31, 2017. It’s a challenge to manage such a budget, but we are confident,” said Côté.

Formed a dozen months ago by a forced merger of the five regional CSSSs (Collines, Gatineau, Papineau, Pontiac, and Vallée), CISSSO manages a budget of just under $790 million.

The board has continuously claimed it will be able to deal with the cuts and eventually balance the budget, without affecting services. The regional board will unveil its plan to manage the cuts in coming weeks.

Last year, the CISSSO’s DG, Jean Hébert, unveiled its plan in mid-May. At that time, the board had to deal with big cuts of almost $20 million, coupled with an operating deficit of $11.5 million.

“We are dealing with the cuts.  Some positions were not renewed; a new phone system will improve our operations; we modified other tasks to optimize our resources,” said Côté. The CISSSO reduced its managerial staff from 75 to 37.

Cost-saving measures will be analyzed at the board meetings which follow the new fiscal year. The first is on April 7, followed by May 5, June 9 and June 15, during which the board will adopt its financial statements.

Prior to the CISSSO’s creation, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette had placed the CSSS de Gatineau under tutelage after it was unable to present a balanced budget in 2015.