WHEREAS the Health Care Costs Recovery Act allows the Ministry of Health to recover all health costs for personal injuries stemming from the negligence of wrongdoing of a third party; AND WHEREAS the legislation is intended to ensure that those who are negligent, rather than the taxpayer, are held liable for the past and potential future health care costs for impacted individuals; AND WHEREAS the provincial government has started pursuing municipalities and municipal police departments for health care costs related to incidents occurring within their jurisdiction; AND WHEREAS health care costs for personal injury and the associated legal costs can be significant and would place an unacceptable burden on municipal tax payers: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Province be requested to withdraw all current claims under the Health Care Costs Recovery Act against municipal governments and provide a commitment to review their practice of pursuing claims against local governments except in cases of gross negligence.
Ministry of Health The Health Care Costs Recovery Act allows government to recover health care costs from negligent third parties. The legislation strengthens governments ability to effectively hold those responsible for causing injuries accountable and ensure that those who commit the negligent act, not the taxpayers, pay for the resulting health care costs. Municipalities, if negligent, are no different than any other group or individual and should therefore be treated the same. As indicated, the legislation is intended to ensure that those who are negligent, rather than the taxpayer, are held liable for health care costs. Therefore, it would be unfair to hold all taxpayers responsible for paying health care costs for a specific municipality that has been negligent; those costs should be borne only by that municipality and the taxpayers within. The resolution also indicates that legal costs can be significant. However, the medical costs are normally a very small percentage of the overall claim filed by an injured party. Further, it is likely that the municipality will have had a law suit filed against them for the negligent act and will require legal resources to deal with that suit regardless of whether there is a claim for health care costs. The incremental legal costs for the addition of the health care costs will be minimal. The Ministry of Health is not considering changes to the Act or policy on how the Act is applied at this time. Municipalities will be expected to settle health care claims with the Ministry, as would any other group of individual.