GUELPH – Wellington County council has approved the makeup and mandate for a joint social services and land ambulance committee.
Under provincial legislation, the county is the consolidated municipal services manager for social services for both the county and the City of Guelph, while Guelph is the designated service delivery agent for ambulance service in both municipalities.
Currently, two committees, run separately by the county and the city, deal with matters related to social services and ambulances respectively.
The new joint committee will see four members of each council appointed to the committee every two years.
“I’m really looking forward to this, where we’re going to have four members from the City of Guelph and four members from the county involved in this, because social services are so important right now with what’s happening,” said councillor David Anderson, social services committee chair, at the Feb. 29 council meeting.
A report to the county administration committee from CAO Scott Wilson noted the transition evolved from an Oct. 17 Guelph council resolution directing senior officials to work with the county to conduct a review of the governance model of the county’s social services committee.
The aim of the review was to “establish clarity and accountability” regarding each municipality’s role in the approval of priorities and spending related to social services.
County Warden Andy Lennox and Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie, along with the county and city CAOs, met in late 2023 to address the terms of the resolution and “discuss the need by both councils to have policy input in the services provided by the other jurisdiction,” Wilson’s report notes.
The report states the county, in recognition of its role as Consolidated Municipal Service Manager, will bring policy matters, operational reporting, and proposed budget impacts for social services to the committee for consideration and recommendation to county council.
Final disposition of recommendations will be reported to the committee at its next meeting.
Likewise, Guelph, in recognition of its role, will bring policy matters, operational reporting and proposed budget impacts for land ambulance service to the committee for consideration and recommendation to city council which will report decisions and recommendations back to the committee.
Responsibility for appointing a chair for a two-year term will alternate between the two councils. Each municipality will also appoint a vice-chair (who cannot also be the chair) to the committee for every term.
The new committee format will be in effect April 1.
For the remainder of this term, Wellington County will be represented by Lennox, Anderson and councillors Matthew Bulmer and Campbell Cork, all members of the current social services committee.
Anderson will continue to chair the committee until the end of the year, after which it will be up to Guelph to appoint the chair.
Wilson told the Advertiser county council will elect a chair (or vice-chair depending on which municipality’s turn it is) and the usual process for selecting the rest of the county councillors on the committee will be followed.
The Warden’s Advisory Committee meets and establishes committee membership at the Warden’s Inaugural meeting every other year. County council then ratifies the membership.
“How the city will make their selections is up to them,” Wilson noted in an email.
At the Feb. 29 county council meeting, Lennox pointed out the fifth member of the existing committee, county councillor Gregg Davidson, had “very graciously” offered to step off the committee.
Later in the meeting, Davidson was reappointed to his role as the county’s representative to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which Lennox noted “takes up a fair bit of his time.”
Historically, Guelph had representation on the social services committee until 2010, when Guelph council elected to pull its representatives.
At the time, then-Guelph Mayor Karen Farbridge complained the make-up routinely resulted in a stalemate on key issues, which were then decided by a vote of county council as the provincially designated service manager.
However, in 2018, Guthrie rejoined the committee as the city’s representative.
“Having been around when that committee kind of went off the rails a number of years ago, I certainly thank Mr. Wilson and the staff and the warden and the city for figuring out how to get back together and having those members added to that committee and adding land ambulance, because there’s often been some confusion about how you communicate the message to people,” said councillor Chris White.
“That’s a great job. Glad to see that back together and I think that will bring benefits to our overall community.”
Anderson commented on recent reports from Guelph-based media suggesting the restructuring means the city will have “more say” on social services issues.
“That’s the general perception that’s out there; that the county manages the services, but there’s not that much say (for the city),” he stated.
“The way we’ve structured our whole program of meetings is that we’ve had the mayor of the City of Guelph involved in our meetings for the last eight years and we’ve also had some city councillors attending our meetings.”
Anderson also noted the committee makes a point of inviting questions from city councillors during meetings.
“We’re always open and we’re always responding to their questions. So, in moving forward, I hope to sort of bury this attitude that the city is getting more (influence) because we’ve had good communication before … the city never did get distanced from the social services, they’re just going to be more involved in it.”
County council approved the restructuring at the Feb. 29 meeting.
Guelph council had previously endorsed the set up at its meeting on Feb. 27.
