Chris Lowrey
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC June 14, 2018
Despite the fact that it was predicting a nearly $6 million deficit as recently as March, the Centre intégré de Santé et Services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSSO) announced that for the third year in a row, it ran a balanced budget.
The 2018-2019 budget for CISSSO is pegged at $862 million, which represents an increase of just over $70 million from 2017-2018.
The organization said that despite rising drug and oncology costs, plus an increase in service demand and what it calls labour recruitment shortages, CISSSO has actually produced a slight surplus.

As a result of the balanced budget, CISSSO said that it will be able to obtain additional financing from the province.
The additional funding from the ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) will provide $1.8 million for increased drug costs and $5.5 million to help alleviate the increased number of patients.
CISSSO has received regular criticism from Pontiac residents over what they’ve said amounted to a slashing of the services in the region.
The decision last year by CISSSO to implement paid visitor parking at all facilities in the Pontiac drew the ire of residents to the point that CISSSO quietly dropped the idea.
Despite CISSSO backing down from implementing paid visitor parking, the organization has instead targeted employees who must now register their plates and pay a percentage of their paycheck for parking.
Parking enforcement officers have been spotted at several healthcare facilities in the Pontiac handing out tickets to employees who have not registered their vehicles with CISSSO.
Additionally, support staff at facilities across the Outaouais staged a sit-in protest against what they call excessively-demanding working conditions.