Oops! we didn’t really mean to cut $2.5 million

Dalhousie’s medical school has lost $2.5 million in provincial funding, an error the Nova Scotia health minister said likely stems from “poor paperwork,” the CBC reported.

After the provincial budget omitted the funding in April, school officials warned loss of licensing to train doctors. “It’s extraordinarily complex and all of the paperwork wasn’t necessarily done in the manner that maybe it should have been done on the part of government,” Health Minister Maureen MacDonald told the CBC. Exactly when the funding will be restored, and by how much, is still yet to be determined, MacDonald told the Chronicle Herald. “We haven’t finalized all of the details and I don’t want to discuss those until they are finally resolved,” she said.

The school, which would be losing eight per cent of is budget, is already on a two-year probation after the Liaison Committee for Medical Education review of curriculum management, monitoring and evaluation turned up 17 non-compliant standards. Dalhousie president Tom Traves told CBC the confusion stems from responsibility for funding delegated between the Health and Education ministries, but MacDonald said they’re working with the school to right the situation.

Dalhousie’s is the only medical institution in the three Maritime provinces.