November/December 2008 - Ontario College of Pharmacists

council report
SEPTEMBER 2008
Council Approves 2009
Capital And Operating
Budget
At the September 2008 Council meeting,
College Council voted in favour of
approving the proposed capital and
operating budget for 2009. The budget
reflects the additional resources required
to address the needs of an ever
growing and complicated membership
base. These include:
• Diverse streams of technicians seeking
regulation;
• Increased scrutiny on entry to practice
fairness;
• HSIA (Health Systems Information
Act) and its impact on complaints and
adjudication;
• Increased investigation demands;
• Higher discipline case load;
• Compliance costs for members’ liability
insurance requirement;
• Technology support for increasingly
complex on-line services;
• Call volume increases of 40%.
Although there are no increases
budgeted for annual fees for pharmacists
or pharmacies or for accreditation
or registration processes, there
are some changes to the fee by-law. Effective
January 1, 2009, annual fees for
pharmacists electing into Part B of the
Register will be reduced to half that of a
Part A fee. In addition, anticipating that
Pharmacy Technicians will commence
registration with the College in 2009,
the budget provides for Technician annual
fees to be equal to two thirds that
of Part A Pharmacist fees. There is also
Approved 2009 Budget Summary
Member Fees .............................$ 6,223,627
Pharmacy Fees ........................... $ 2,741,230
Health Profession Corporation. ...............$ 31,800
Registration Fees and Income. ................$ 878,169
Investment Income . ........................$ 230,000
Total Projected Revenue . ...............$10,104,826
Expenses
Council, Committee & District Meetings ....... $ 2,805,518
College Administration. .................... $ 7,476,639
Property ..................................$ 267,459
Total Expenses . .......................$10,549,616
Excess of Revenue over Expenses ............. $ (444,790)
Capital Expenditures. ...................... $ (150,000)
Surplus (Deficit) after Capital ..........$ (594,790)
a new fee for Reinstatement that will
support changes to proposed entry to
practice regulations. The projected excess
of operating expenses over revenue
of $445,000 and the IT capital
spending of $150,000 is to be covered
by accumulated reserves.
Council noted that over the past several
years, due to growth in membership,
the College has accumulated reserves
projected to exceed $4 million
by year end 2008. As reported in previous
years, the excess reserves were allocated
for facilities to address the anticipated
increase in space required to
accommodate growth in staffing. Consultations
are currently underway, facilitated
by an outside Real Estate/Design
firm; to determine how the current facilities
owned and operated by the College
could be reconfigured to increase
the utility and efficiency. Accordingly,
Council agreed to defer approval of a
capital budget for building, leaseholds
and furniture to December 2008.
Council Approves
Appointment Of Clarke
Henning Llp As Auditors For
2008
In keeping with the Finance policy that
external services be tested against the
market every five years, the Financial
and Audit services were taken to the
market in the spring of this year. Following
a comprehensive analysis, the
Finance Committee recommended
that the firm Clarke Henning LLP,
Chartered Accountants, be appointed
as Auditors for the College for the fiscal
year 2008. The firm is registered
with the Canadian Public Accountability
Board and will be undertaking the
financial audit, the required pension
audit as well as the fairness audit. As
well, Council noted that the appointment
of Clarke Henning will result in a
30% cost saving in financial audit fees
and the firm has committed to not raising
their fees beyond the CPI for three
years.
pharmacyconnection • November/December 2008
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