BONNYVILLE – Seniors who reside in the MD of Bonnyville will notice changes to the municipality’s Seniors Transportation Grant Policy after council approved amendments that saw several reductions in regard to travel reimbursements.
The policy amendments were approved on Jan. 10, during a regular council meeting following a request for changes from the Bonnyville and District FCSS.
The MD of Bonnyville offers a grant with a total annual budget of $40,000 to seniors who are 65 years of age or older and whose primary residence is in the municipality.
The grant only accepts claims for medically necessary appointments referred by a medical doctor when services are not otherwise available within the municipality.
Coun. Josh Crick, who sits on the FCSS board, explained why the reductions to reimbursement were introduced before making the motion to adopt the changes.
“I'll just clarify the reason that this is up [for discussion] from FCSS asking for these changes is that the money wasn't going to stretch far enough to cover the whole year. And even at 20 cents per kilometer, that will still allow somebody who leaves from this building [to get to] the Royal Alexandra Hospital, that would give them $96.40, which would cover the cost of their fuel,” Crick told council.
Changes to the Seniors Transportation Grant Policy include the reduction of the mileage reimbursement rate from 56 cents per kilometre to 20 cents per kilometre, and reducing the maximum reimbursement value in a calendar year from $600 to $400 per applicant.
For applicants who qualify for the Canada Pension’s Guaranteed Income Supplement, the maximum reimbursement value in a calendar year that they can claim has been reduced from $1,200 to $1,000.
The period that applicants must claim medical transportation was also reduced from a maximum of six months to within 30 days of the travel date.
The previous policy also allowed applicants to apply for transportation costs of medical trips to Bonnyville, Cold Lake or Glendon. In the updated policy, this is no longer the case.
“Mileage is paid for a trip of at least 150 km (one way) outside the MD municipal boundaries. Reimbursements are not eligible for medical appointments within Cold Lake, Bonnyville or Glendon,” states the municipality’s updated Seniors Transportation Grant Policy.
The motion was unanimously passed by council members present at the meeting.
Getting caught up
The MD’s Seniors Transportation Grant is managed through Bonnyville’s FCSS.
David Beale, the former executive director of the Bonnyville FCSS, who is now training his replacement after 40 years of working for the municipal organization, said the reduction in reimbursements was not exactly what the FCSS board had hoped for.
Beale said the crux of the issue is that the $40,000 put aside every year to fund the grant has not gone far enough in the last few years.
“When I take a look at the uptake... going back three or four years, we were spending maybe a little over $30,000 to $25,000. So, the $40,000 was adequate, and then COVID hit, and nobody was going for medical [appointments] and the cost dropped way down. And so, we didn't expend that kind of money,” explained Beale.
“Then last year, in 2022, because people were now getting caught up on all the [medical] trips they needed to take and the backlog of medical treatments and procedures and postponed elective surgeries and all these things, all of a sudden, we exceeded the $40,000.”
This policy was first introduced in early 2011 and was then amended in 2021 to increase milage rates.
“So, the first ask was not to reduce the amount paid per trip, but to increase the $40,000, and the MD said ‘No’,” stated Beale.
The former executive director then expressed that if the grant amount was not increased, the funds would likely run out by the middle of the third quarter, which would be August or September.
“We anticipated that in 2023, at the current rate we were expending by the end of 2022, that amount of money would only get to September. What do I tell the person that applies for funding in October or November?” Beale asked.
Acknowledging that the municipality expressed no intention of increasing the grant amount, Beale’s recommendation to the FCSS board and municipality was to reduce the amount paid out per trip in hopes of extending the funds until the end of the year.
The Town of Bonnyville does not have an equivalent senior transportation grant, however, the municipality does have a taxi subsidy agreement that provides lower rates for senior citizens travelling within the town, explained Beale.
