health budget

A summary of the Cypress Health Region's operating budget as presented at their board meeting on Wednesday

The Cypress Health Region had to rely on some short-term cost savings in order to balance their operating budget for 2012-13.

The health board approved a $125.4-million budget at their regular board meeting on Wednesday, with CEO Beth Vachon saying they were able to match expenses through one-time cash savings and effecive management of staff vacancies.

"Some of those are short-term choices that we made as a management team this year, and our board does support the direction that we're going in for this next year," Vachon said. "Being in a transitional year, we didn't want to make any significant changes to any of our services... this year, we didn't have to make those choices and we want to give ourselves that time to see what we can do."

Vachon adds even though they have been able to manage their staffing vacancies to help them save money, they are actively recruiting for these positions: "If we were able to fill all of them tomorrow, that's exactly what we would do, and we would find that $700,000 somewhere else in our budget through the year."

Eighty-one per cent of the budget, or just over $101 million, will go toward compensation for staff.

Health Region CEO Beth Vachon talked with reporters after Wednesday's board meeting: