PREPARED BY: Planning and Strategic Initiatives
DATE: 2026-11-12
SUBJECT: 2027 Annual Service Plan (ASP) Summary
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE
Annually, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) is required by the Ministry of Health to complete an Annual Service Plan (ASP) that outlines how the health unit plans to meet the Ontario Public Health Standards requirements. Ahead of the ASP submission, the WECHU prepares its operating budgets for the Board of Health’s (BOH) review to act as a foundation for program planning and budget submission to the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.
DISCUSSION
Windsor-Essex County (WEC) continues to face significant and complex public health challenges that shape the WECHU’s service planning and budget priorities. Residents living in materially deprived neighbourhoods experience poorer health outcomes, higher rates of food insecurity, reduced access to primary care, and greater barriers to healthy living. These challenges are compounded by WEC’s unique demographic and geographic characteristics, including a large population of international agricultural workers, a growing and diverse immigrant population, and its location along North America’s busiest international border crossing. Local data show increasing concerns related to mental health, substance use, infectious diseases, chronic disease burden, maternal and child health outcomes, and access to preventive healthcare services, all of which disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.
To address these challenges and in alignment with the new Ontario Public Health Standards (expected to take effect in January 2027), the WECHU delivers programs and services tailored to community needs. Our programs aim to address ongoing challenges such as increasing adverse childhood experiences, food insecurity, intimate partner violence, youth mental health concerns, declining breastfeeding rates, developmental vulnerabilities among children, vaccine hesitancy, rising opioid-related harms, and health inequities associated with socioeconomic deprivation. At the same time, the WECHU continues to provide a broad range of evidence-informed prevention, promotion, surveillance, inspection, clinical, and outreach services through programs focused on healthy families, food environments, mental health promotion, oral health, immunization, infectious disease control, food safety, environmental health, safe water, and substance use prevention. Together, these initiatives aim to reduce health risks, address inequities, strengthen community resilience, and improve health outcomes across the lifespan for WEC residents.