Midwives in Orillia and across Ontario are anxiously waiting to find out the fate of their provincial funding.
The College of Midwives of Ontario, in a post to its website Dec. 12, stated, “The college has been advised that the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will no longer provide operational grants to the college. We were also advised that this decision is retroactive to April 1, 2018. This means that the funding we had anticipated for the current fiscal year will not be received. We received this news on November 8, 2018, eight months into our fiscal year.”
When contacted about the statement, Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop said that information is “false.”
“There have been no decisions made at all,” she said.
That was the message from the ministry, too, which led the college to post an updated statement Wednesday.
In it, the college maintains the ministry informed it of a pending funding cut, but added Health and Long-term Care Minister Christine Elliott has since “stated publicly that the college’s funding is under consideration.”
“We would welcome any operational funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care,” the statement reads. “At this time, we have not heard directly from the ministry, and have reached out to the minister and her staff for further clarification.”
Laura Ready, a midwife and one of the practice partners at Orillia Midwives, is concerned about the potential of a funding cut.
“I am genuinely fearing for the future of midwifery in Ontario,” she said.
Midwives are paying thousands of dollars in fees to the college every year. If provincial funding is pulled, “it will likely fall on already underpaid midwives,” who will have to pay even more in fees, Ready said.
The relationship between midwives and the province is already a rocky one. In September, after a five-year battle, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario sided with the Association of Ontario Midwives, which claimed the government showed discrimination by not regularly negotiating pay with midwives. The province has appealed that decision.
Ready said the many benefits of midwifery need to be top of mind. They are primary-care providers who assist with births in both hospital and home. She said they lessen the burden on health care, costing the system less than the services of an obstetrician. Midwives also provide extensive pre- and post-natal care.
If the funding is pulled, “we are at risk of losing midwives in Ontario,” Ready said.
“In the long term, it’s going to increase the cost of health care in Ontario.”
Five midwives work with the Orillia group, and there are “many more” in the area who are not associated with Orillia Midwives, Ready explained, adding her practice serves about 120 women per year.
While Dunlop said the government is not looking to slash the college's funding “at this moment,” she noted it is the only regulatory health college in Ontario that receives provincial funding for administrative purposes.