It did not take long for the issue of social services jurisdiction to hit its first bump in the road after Guelph council opted to form its own social services committee.
The Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition came to the Wellington County social services committee on Feb. 5 to ask for an increase in this year’s budget – and the committee sent that delegation back to the city.
Warden Joanne Ross-Zuj said the coalition is strictly a city operation, run for the benefit of Guelph residents. Consequently, she said, the county committee decided it should be up to Guelph city council if it wants to fund that group – and how much to give it.
She added funding for the group is “discretionary” spending. “It’s not mandated that we must do it,” she said.
The decision is part of the fallout of a problem that has been ongoing for several months.
City council voted last month to create its own social services committee, even though the provincial government has mandated the service be delivered by the county.
Before Guelph decided to leave the joint committee with the county, such delegations would have been heard by city and county councillors. Ross-Zuj said the county’s committee chairman, Gord Tosh, explained to the delegation that since it is funded solely by Guelph (social services is a user-pay operation) its members should take its case to city hall, and not the county.
Ross-Zuj added Guelph council has demanded more of a say over discretionary spending by the committee, and this is an opportunity for the city to make a decision about spending.
The county and the city have been at odds for months over social services, and the city attempted, through arbitration, to change the way social services are levied.
The county won the arbitration battle the day after Guelph council voted to have its own committee.
County officials are unsure how that city committee can legally or physically operate, since all social services employees are employed by the county.
Ross-Zuj said she has no intention of forcing county staff to attend two meetings a month to report to the Guelph committee.
She added this week she was attending the Good Roads and Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in Toronto. That conference is always a good opportunity to lobby government officials, and she said she hoped to meet with several cabinet ministers in order to determine if Guelph has acted legally in creating its own committee.
Ross-Zuj also said county Treasurer Craig Dyer has informed city officials that they have not put enough cash in their budget to pay their social services bill.
“He asked them to get back to the county about what they want to cut to make up the shortfall,” she said. “They have some big decisions to make.”
Ross-Zuj said she is confident the provincial government will side with the county on the issue of who runs social services, because it has reduced the number of committees and service providers in social services.
“The province went to great lengths to deliver service models across the province,” she said. “They cut a number of service agencies. That was their intent – to keep it smaller.”
Ross-Zuj added she and Chief Administrative Officer Scott Wilson were scheduled to meet with MPP Ted Arnott to keep him informed about the issues that have arisen.
She expected Arnott would carry the county difficulties to the Minister of Municipal Affairs.
“It’s just for information,” she said of the meeting. “I want the minister to be totally up to date with our position.”
She also plans to meet with Minister of Revenue John Wilkinson, MPP?for Perth-Wellington, as well as Guelph Liberal MPP Liz Sandals, to keep them up to date. That meeting is scheduled for March 12.
“I like to keep our MPPs up to date at the county,” she said.
