At October’s Social Services Committee meeting of Wellington County things will be relatively more laid back than September’s packed agenda. This month there will be mostly discussions about spending and the funding of programs, plus there will be a visit from the gang that runs the local health van who are on the look out for some funding of their own.
NOTE: This meeting takes place at 1 pm in Guthrie Room at the Wellington County Administration Centre on Woolwich Street.
Delegations:
Guelph Wellington Community Health Van – A group from the Sanguen Health Centre will appear to talk about the benefits of the health van. Funding from Health Canada expires in March 2024, which is problematic because demand for the services of the van is only growing; from July to September of this year alone, the van had over 4,300 interventions and saw over 2,200 unique individuals. Although there’s no motion connected to this presentation, there is an inherent request for funding.
Social Services Financial Statements and Variance Projections as of September 30, 2023 – Now more than three quarters of the way through the year, finance staff at the County have a pretty good sense of where this year’s budget will sit at year’s end. As usual Ontario Works and Children’s Early Years are covered in full by the provincial government, but housing is mostly on the City of Guelph and the County of Wellington, and right now that’s where the pressure is. While there have been some cost savings in the first two categories, things have gone over-budget in the areas of homeless prevention and the upkeep in social housing. The negative variance for housing this year is likely to be $2 million with $1.8 million being the City’s share.
Reaching IN…Reaching OUT and Bounce Back and Thrive Update – There are two evidence-based resilience skills training programmes for those working in the child care and early years sector as well as parents. Locally Willowdale Child Care and Learning Centre was the first to use it in 2002, but since 2020, the County has trained 775 individuals in RIRO and 187 in BBT with another 94 individuals trained as RIRO trainers, and 84 as BBT trainers. But the popularity of the program means that user fees will be introduced starting in 2024, and it’s the intention of the County to implement those fees using a cost recovery model.
Children’s Early Years 2024 User Fees and Charges – Speaking of those fees, the RIRO and BBT are pretty much the only areas getting a fee change for 2024. All the other fees are remaining the same.
Increase to the 2023-24 Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit Funding Allocation – Last month, Wellington County received a letter from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to confirm that they were receiving a $335,500 boost to the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB) programme for next year, which brings the allotment for 2024 up to $833,400. This money helps support low income residents of the county cover the cost of rent when they fall short, and that follows the County’s housing first policy that it’s better to help someone keep a home than end up homeless.
Guelph Politico 