City council here has voted to consider a social services work plan that could include creating three full-time positions that may cost $260,000 per year.
As well, the city will consider spending about $250,000 in each of the next two years developing a community wellness plan and neighbourhood identity strategy.
All those proposals will have to be approved in the 2011 budget, but they have also left Wellington County Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj and a Guelph city councillor wondering what is really happening.
“This makes absolutely no sense to me at all,” Ross-Zuj said in an interview. “They don’t deliver the service; we do.”
The move seems to be just one more jab at the county to city councillor Bob Bell, who was one of three city councillors who opposed accepting the report. Christine Billings and Kathleen Farrelly also voted against it.
Bell said in an interview last week, “Raising taxes to pay for duplication of services is not a good way to solve this problem.”
The “problem” he referred to comes through provincially mandated service delivery. Wellington County is responsible for delivery of social services. In the past, four members from the city and county sat on a committee. They each paid social services costs according to what they used. In January, Guelph left that committee and formed its own.
The city pays $23-million per year in social services, about 80% of the total bill, because city residents used about 80% of the services. The city tried, and failed, to take command of social services some years ago, and the province rejected that proposal. That was around the same time the county tried to take back control of land ambulance service delivery, and the province rejected that bid, too.
The report city council accepted was written by Manager of Integrated Services Barbara Powell and Ann Pappert, Executive Director of Community and Social Services.
Pappert said in an interview the report “includes everything we want to do – which goes beyond traditional social services … We’re looking for a much more comprehensive report called community wellness.”
She said a wellness component is something that is coming in social services, and New Brunswick has already started considering that. She said it goes “beyond social services delivery.”
The plan passed by city council stated, “Rationale for the work plan is an understanding of practices and research which suggest that: cities evolve and are unique; residents come, stay and may fundamentally change the places or neighbourhoods in which they dwell; the wellness of an individual citizen is linked to the ‘ways and means’ by which the whole community sustains its wellness; an array of neighbourhood images, identities and uniqueness of character are important attributes to the overall health of any city seeking to maintain its independence, sustain its economic, environment, culture and social strengths.”
It continued, “Further, acknowledging the stress cities and citizens experience in attempting to respond to the complexities arising from the convergence of key service areas at the grass roots level, one is reminded of Albert Einstein’s comment (Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results) and we therefore are compelled to explore a new way.”
Pappert and Powell said in their report, “Specifically, as municipal government along with its partner service agencies, is best situated to listen, understand and respond to the wellness needs of its citizens, it is therefore a problem that the municipality has no authority to direct reasoned changes to provincially and federally legislated services and programs, to meet the unique and sensitive needs of its residents. Municipalities may work to influence change but they have no direct control.”
They argued, “Yet, municipalities are required to pay a portion of these services directly. The 2010 municipal tax levy includes approximately $23,000,000 for Ontario Works, child care, housing and employment programs delivered by the county on behalf of this municipality. This represents approximately 15% of the 2010 tax levy.”
They concluded, “We need a new way. No wellness problem appears to be in the exclusive purview of a single group, agency or elected body. Research shows that to address complex issues, we need to work both “horizontally” with other sectors in the community, and “vertically” with other levels of government while ‘tapping the working knowledge and wisdom’ of residents.”
Pappert said that part of the plan calls for at least talking to the county officials, and she said the time between the city council approval of the bill to the next budget where it will be considered includes talking with county Social Services Director Eddy Alton.
She also wants to “engage citizens differently.” She said Guelph is growing and city council should know the makeup of neighbourhoods. She said the city social services committee will include “a much broader scope” than what the old county and city committee did.
But Ross-Zuj said, “There’s been no consultation with us at all.” She said the county will welcome them back to the legally mandated social services committee, and she said the city can then obtain all the information that it wants.
Bell has been attending the county’s committee meetings but only as a spectator because he has no mandate from city hall to sit on that committee.”
Ross-Zuj said of Bell, “He gets it.”
Bell said the city needs “to be careful.”
He said he believes that the city and the county have to be careful “we’re counting properly.” He said that is “at the root of some issues” and there needs to be strong look at financing.
But, he conceded, “There is so much animosity.”
He does not blame council, but instead points to staff causing a lot of the problems between the two governments.
“All the information I read comes from staff – so the flames are fanned by staff. I don’t feel any animosity towards county council, and I doubt they have animosity towards city council.”
Bell said the rift between the county and city has been “growing for ten years.”
He explained that at one time the province had charge of social services, and the county had a small piece. Then the province downloaded the entire portfolio and the county was put in charge.
“It all went from the province to the county. That was sort of the start of hard feelings towards the county. It’s mounted slowly since 1993 to 1995.”
Bell said it is understandable because the city pays 80% and the county the remaining 20, but the county is in charge.
He noted the committee contained four members from each council, but they had to agree in order to get things accomplished.
He said of the other territorial dispute, “The county was absolutely right about land ambulance.”
He said the county pays 40% of the costs, and should have a say on that committee. Instead, Guelph council rejected any members from the county on the committee, and said the county can come to the meetings as a delegation.
That rankles Ross-Zuj, who said the county doesn’t want a full partnership in that committee, but, “We just want a member at the table. Their exclusion from social services was their choice.”
Bell again took issue with some city staff and their approach.
“The way things are being pitched by staff at the city, I don’t buy into some of it. It’s all about the power. Nothing infuriates a bureaucrat more than another bureaucrat in his bailiwick.”
The city took the county too arbitration over social services costs, and not only lost, but ended up paying a larger share of that bill. The new committee means even more expenses.
Bell concluded, “It’d be nice if we could get some sort of solution that doesn’t cost the county or the city. I’m sure the county appreciates it [the old way of providing social services] is not a fair way of dealing with things. If the county had proposed it, they would have a receptive audience. Not everybody is buying the staff line.”
The Advertiser attempted to obtain a comment from Guelph Mayor Karen Farbridge, but she did not respond.
