By Angela Hill

They’re back in black

Apr 15, 2011 | 7:53 AM

The red has turned to black for the first time in a long time.

The Prince Albert Parkland Health Region has forecasted a surplus of $2.2 million for the end of the fiscal year.

“A lot of the credit goes to the staff of the region … (their) sick time and overtime has decreased immeasurably. On behalf of the board I have to say to them, congratulations that’s fabulous,” said Gord Dobrowolsky, chairman of the health region board.

This is only the second the surplus the region has seen since it was formed in 2002 — the other was $185,000 in 2007.

“I feel very good about it. We’ve worked hard to get here. I’m the numbers guy and I don’t feel comfortable with deficits every year, so I feel pretty good about it,” said Morgan Kennedy, vice-president finance and information technology.

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The reduction of 26,000 overtime hours worked to the end of February, compared to the previous year, is only one part of the savings.

A renewal in natural gas contracts saved about $80,000 and group buying power through provincial and interprovincial purchasing groups helped as well, Kennedy said.

Other expenses are down from the budgeted two per cent increase and by using shared service such as property insurance, he said.

“We did have very good leadership from the board, CEO and senior management team in the implementation in the savings and issues over the past couple of years,” Kennedy said.

According to Kennedy, decisions made years ago are now coming into fruition including the elimination of the WCB surcharge, but getting the number of workplace incidents down with new strategies.

Of the savings, 50 per cent will go into operating costs and the remaining 50 per cent will go unrestricted into capital to be used where required.

Kennedy said that he hopes this is the beginning of a trend.

“I would see this as something the ministry can look at and say this is a good thing. We’re far from a healthy organization, but at least we’ve started. I would like to be able to be sitting here in a year from now and be telling you that we have another $2 million surplus.”

ahill@panow.com