More unfavourable news for the Cypress Regional Health Authority, as they continue to unpack the provincial budget.

It was announced at Wednesday's monthly Cypress Health Board meeting the region's funding will be 7 percent less than originally anticipated.

"I was expecting something (as a cut), but I was not expecting that big of a number," Larry Allsen Chief Financial Officer and interim Chief Executive Officer for the Cypress Health Region said. "It's rather large, it's about 7 percent for us. It was a shock."

The funding need for the Cypress Health Region is in the neighbourhood of $134 million for the 2017-18 budget, however the province allotted them approximately $124.9 million. The figures don't represent a decrease in funding for the health region, but they don't dictate an increase as well.

"With the health system being 48 percent of the provincial budget, we were going to have to take some of the pain," Allsen added. "I've talked to some other health regions and we did get hit fairly hard compared to others."

The Cypress Health Region's money management in over the past decade has created unrestricted reserves of up to $9-million, in which the board anticipates using half towards the shortfall of approximately $9.2-million. The other half of the reserves have already been allocated to the expansion of the Leader Integrated Health Care Facility and other equipment upgrades that had been previously approved.

The board also projected an approximated surplus between $1 million and $1.4 million from this year which they will be able to use towards the shortfall. This leaves less than half of the difference to be paid.

On budget day, the province also announced new initiatives that had been created, an increase to long-term-care costs that will be implemented on July 1st, and a decrease in funding to seven provincial programs two of which (Podiatry and Parent Mentoring Program of Saskatchewan) will affect the Cypress Health Region. Collectively, these services will save the health region approximately $800,000.

"The podiatrist that we did have on staff has already moved into a private practice instead of a publicly-funded practice," Bryce Martin Vice President Primary Health Care for the Cypress Health Region said. "The podiatry service is still available in exactly the same way as it was before - same provider - although the funding of that program is no longer in place from the public purse."

The Cypress Health Region had three employees affected by the budget, with one being the aforementioned podiatrist. Interm CEO Larry Allsen also said he doesn't anticipate a raft of job cuts in the health region.