2022 First Quarter Activity Report
May 26, 2022
The following is the most recent consolidated Quarterly Report that the DSB will be sending to member municipalities and posting on the public website. Expect Quarterly Reports in February, May, September, and November of each year.
The program statistics are provided separately and updated monthly. They are available on the website by clicking the following link: Monthly Program Statistics
CAO Overview
The DSB 2022 First Quarter (Unaudited) Financial Report was presented to the Board and projects a year-end municipal surplus of $124,811. Children’s Services and Ontario Works is forecasted to be on budget. Community Housing is forecasted to be under budget by $131,152. Paramedic Services is forecasted to be under budget by $11,904. Interest revenue on non-reserve accounts is forecasted to be $18,245 less than budgeted.
The DSB quarterly financial reports are available on the DSB website by clicking the following link: Quarterly Financial Reports
Paramedic Services
COVID-19 Pandemic Response
After a long 2+ years of being the tip of the sword in the COVID-19 Pandemic Response, our service began experiencing some staffing pressures related to isolation requirements and close contact management. While we had been able to avoid critical staffing impacts observed in the other sectors, the advent of the Omicron variant, the re-opening of schools and the lifting of some Public Health measures presented increased exposure risks for Paramedics. Several of our staff tested positive during the first quarter and caused a significant increase in overtime shifts. As of March 31st, staffing appears to have stabilized as have our rate of infections. While significantly reduced, we are still supporting the Assessment Centres with homebound COVID-19 testing as required. The service is anticipating moving from response to recovery by the end of April. While provincial mask mandates have mostly been lifted, Paramedic Service continues to enforce a mandatory masking policy to maintain a safe workplace and mitigate the risk of infection in the workplace.
Wikwemikong Enhancements and LaCloche PRU Pilot
Paramedic Services received notice in late December 2021 from the Ministry of Health that the business cases submitted to replace the current PRU with a 12-hour/Day/7 day per week transporting unit along with the station modifications required to house a third ambulance had been 100% approved and funded. Given that we had one spare unit available, staff were able to quickly operationalize this transporting unit by using our Part-Time pool to upstaff an ambulance until an internal posting for 2 Full-Time employees could be completed. The transporting unit was deployed by January 9th and the Full-Time positions were filled by January 23rd, 2022. With these approvals also came the ability to redeploy the Wikwemikong PRU to the Little Current Station and commence a pilot that would see the PRU staffed 7 days/week from 08:00-20:00 hrs to enable a true balanced emergency coverage model and offset lost resources to out of town transfers for extended periods of time. This was also operationalized on January 9th and has already proven effective at maintaining balanced emergency coverage for Manitoulin Island. Planning for the capital building enhancements is ongoing with Housing Services Corporation acting as the Project Manager and an architectural firm has been engaged to commence the design-build process.
Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care (CPLTC)
Our Community Paramedicine team continues to roster patients and provide vital services to our most vulnerable and marginalized populations. The Team deployed the Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) program in late January a full month ahead of schedule and currently have 6 clients enrolled. Patients located as far as Cartier are now benefitting from this real time tool which helps bridge the geography gap that we face with in our region. RPM provides the patient with equipment and technology to assess their own vital signs daily which is automatically transmitted to our Dashboard. Our team monitors the RPM Dashboard daily to ensure that no big variations occur. If a minimum safe threshold is reached, such as a low heartrate, an email notice is sent to the entire team including the Deputy Chief and Chief. A team member follows up the alert by contacting the client by phone to perform a wellness check and if required, schedule a follow up home visit.
Non-Urgent Patient Transportation Service (NUPTS)
We continue to work with our funding partners to solidify the Non-Urgent Patient Transportation Service. The service was fortunate to receive approval of $300,000.00 in annual base funding from the Ministry of Health which was very timely in order to help keep the service operational for years to come. The Governance Committee has met on several occasions to map out future states and opportunities for service improvements and have commenced investigating optimum staffing and scheduling profiles. A pilot has been deployed to explore the efficacies of moving to a 12-hour shift versus an 8-hour shift. The service is also exploring the benefits of staffing one PTS unit on weekends and measuring its impact on Paramedic Services weekend activities. A progress report should be prepared by the first week of May. Additionally, the service held a recruitment to increase staffing capacity and agility for any new models being contemplated. The service successfully recruited 2 Personal Support Workers and 2 Patient Transportation Attendants. Onboarding commenced on March 22 and all 4 new employees will be added to the active roster by April 3rd, 2022.
Children’s Services
Time-Limited Public Health Actions – Emergency Child Care
On January 4th the Province announced a range of time-limited public health actions, as part of this announcement, starting January 5, schools were closed for in-person learning. Targeted Emergency Child Care was re-instituted for school aged children on January 10, 2022. The government announced the return to in-person learning on January 17, 2022 and the provision of emergency child care for school-aged children ended on January 14, 2022.
2022 Funding Guidelines and Allocation
The Ministry of Education released the funding allocation and guidelines for 2022. The funding approach will continue to remain unchanged from 2021. As a result of additional investments outside of the provincial funding approach, the Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB funding has increased by $794,955. New funding has been devoted to the Canada-Ontario Early Childhood and Workforce Agreement; the Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB allocation is $576,491.
Also included is the renewed Canada-Ontario Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Agreement, to support childcare and early years program delivery. The Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB has received an additional $109,169 for Child Care and $109,295 for EarlyON.
As of January 1, 2022, the threshold for allowable administrative funding CMSMs/DSSABs can spend on childcare will be reduced from 10% to 5% excluding ELCC and EarlyON administration funding. The Ministry is providing a one-time transitional grant in 2022, to help offset and assist with the impact of the new administration threshold. The amount of the transitional grant is $414,902.
Lifting of Health and Safety Measures in Child Care
Child Care Licensees received a memo from the Ministry of Education on March 9, 2022, Effective March 14th, 2022, instructions issued by the Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health indicated licensees are no longer required to have a Covid-19 vaccine policy in place, unvaccinated individuals covered under the licensee’s policies will no longer be required to test three times per week. Effective March 21, 2022, masks and eye protection are no longer required for staff, providers or children, cohorts and distancing are also no longer required, nor will daily screening confirmation, self screening is still required. The government will continue to provide masks and eye protection for those providers who request it, and the ministry will also provide rapid antigen test kits for symptomatic children, staff and providers.
Remaining Health and Safety Measures in Child Care include hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, cleaning, and disinfecting. Measures that will remain in place until the end of June include ventilation measures and absence reporting. The Ontario government released an updated document to align with the new screening tool to provide current information regarding testing, case, contact and outbreak management. Child Care Licensees will continue to submit serious occurrences to report program closures related to Covid-19.
Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care System
On March 28, 2022, the Ministry of Education announced that Ontario and Canada signed the Canada-Wide Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) agreement that will lower fees for parents. Ontario’s plan will deliver $10/day childcare, on average, by September 2025. Ontario families with children aged 0-5 in participating licensed childcare programs will see a fee reduction of up to 25%, retroactive to April 1, 2022. Parents can expect a further reduction by the end of December 2022, on average by 50%, a further reduction in September 2024, and a final reduction to $10/day, on average, by September 2025. Ontario’s fee subsidy program will continue. The agreement includes the creation of 86,000 new licensed childcare spaces, including more than 15,000 spaces created since 2019. Additionally, it will support compensation for Registered ECE’s in licensed child care, including those providing care for children 6 to 13 years old.
The ministry will provide preliminary 2022 allocations to support local planning and engagement in this transformative work. The ministry will work closely with service system managers, licensees and other sector partners.
SmartStart Hubs: connecting families to child development services
A memo dated March 29, 2022, from Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services and the Ministry of Education regarding the launch of SmartStart Hubs which will connect children, youth, and their families to appropriate assessments and services. Children’s Treatment Centres and relevant local organization will begin to plan for the implementation and delivery functions across the province and full implementation is expected across Ontario in Fall 2022.
Child Care Enrolment Data
In the first quarter, the average enrollment in licensed child care was 482 children, 361 full fee and 121 subsidized. Compared to last quarter there has been a 2% decrease and compared to last year at this time, enrollment has increased by 14%.
In Quarter 1, the number of total visits by parents/caregivers and children was 913 to EarlyON Child & Family Centres, and the total activity kits provided was 860. Compared to last quarter the number of visits decreased by 8%, and activity kits provided increased by 30%. Compared to last year at this time, number of visits decreased by 27%, and activity kits provided increased by 39%.
Ontario Works
Ontario Works Caseload
In the first quarter of 2022, The Ontario Works/Temporary Care Caseload average was 526. Compared to last year at this time, the caseload has increased 5%.
Social Assistance Vision
In September of 2020 the Ministry introduced the Social Assistance Recovery and Renewal as part of the plan in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus at that time was economic “recovery”, preparing for the end of federal pandemic benefits.
The introduction of this new vision was followed with the piloting of Centralized Intake/ Intake & Benefits Administration Unit (IBAU). Centralizing benefits administration allows caseworkers to spend more time focusing on supporting clients. Centralized intake launched November 2, 2020; the Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB was phased into the Centralized Intake Process on June 21, 2021.
This January, the ministry released the “What We Heard Report”, outlining the main themes that have been heard through client and staff engagement. Provincial and municipal offices will be participating in another round of client engagement that will focus on groups that were underrepresented in the August 2021 engagement. The feedback is being used to inform the design of the new service and delivery model.
In February 2021, an expanded vision for the “renewal” piece of the plan was released. This plan included developing a new model for social assistance. The name of the initiative was then shortened from “Social Assistance Recovery and Renewal” to “Social Assistance Renewal”, signifying that this is a long-term endeavor to transform the system and is no longer tied to shifting economic circumstances.
In early February, the 4th issue of the Social Assistance Renewal Highlights newsletter was released. The ministry announced that the term “life stabilization” will be replaced with “stability supports”. This term better reflects the types of services that clients may be accessing without presuming the impact on someone’s circumstances. The underlying goals and objectives of Social Assistance Renewal remain unchanged.
Social Assistance Modernization
The modernization of social assistance has been an ongoing effort over the last few years. The ministry has implemented numerous initiatives with the intent to make staff’s work easier and to better help social assistance recipients.
The Electronic Document Management (EDM) team has been collaborating with Ontario Works delivery agents since May 2020 to implement digital mailrooms. By the end of April 2022, 75% of municipalities will have gone live with full EDM.
MyBenefits messaging service was released to all MyBenefits users on June 19, 2021. The messaging service allows for timely communication between clients and caseworkers. This initiative provides more choice and flexibility in how clients receive, manage, and report information. There is also the ability for clients to upload documents directly to the Social Assistance Management System (SAMS).
In November of 2021, phase 1 of a Digital DDP was piloted with a small group of Health Care Professionals. Prior to November 15th, 2021, the DDP was only available on printed paper and provided to clients. The digital DDP will improve the experience for both the client and the Health Care Professional, reduce the number of errors in applications, save money and time, reduce the amount of delayed or lost applications, and reduce the need for in person medical appointments to complete the DDP.
The pilot phase was completed March 2022, 69 HCPs were able to complete and submit the parts of the DDP that they are responsible for. HCPs were also able to upload an applicant’s completed/signed consent and Self-Report forms on the applicant’s behalf. The second phase of this project began April 7, 2022, as the Digital DDP is being expanded province wide.
Employment Ontario
All employment Ontario Delivery Partners received confirmation, that service provider allocations and targets would remain status quo for 2022-2023. This applies to Employment Service, and Youth Job Connection and Youth Job Connection Summer. These programs are delivered in our Chapleau office.
Community Housing
Waiting list (Applicants)
Total applications at end of quarter 1 is 633. The applicant breakdown is as follows:
1 Bedroom 491 (+29) 2 Bedroom 62 (+4)
3 Bedroom 46 4 bedroom 34 (+7)
Direct Shelter Subsidy (DSS)
Staff continue to identify and complete the application process with eligible applicants for the DSS program. All applicants receiving the benefit are deemed housed. As of the end of this quarter there were 219 active DSS recipients.
Income Mixing
Per DSB Policy, every effort is being made where the waitlist allows, to mix the Community Housing Buildings with RGI, Affordable and Market Rent Tenants. As of the end of this quarter we have successfully secured 10 market rent tenants and 80 affordable rent tenants.
Smoke Free Housing – Unit Count-down
As of the end of the 1st quarter of 2022, 187/275 of the portfolio’s units are designated as Smoke-free. This represents 68% of the full portfolio currently. Units are designated as turn-over occurs.
Homelessness Prevention Program 2022-23 Allocation
Staff received correspondence on March 7, 2022 regarding funding for the 2022-23 fiscal year, including details on the redesign of homelessness prevention and supportive housing programs, an extension to the Social Services Relief Fund (SSRF) and an update on the next phase of the National Housing Strategy investments.
The ministry is consolidating the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI), Home for Good and the Strong Communities Rent Supplement Program into one flexible Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP), beginning April 1, 2022.
The provincial investment has increased by $25 million bringing the total provincial funding under the Homelessness Prevention Program to over $463 million.
The HPP aims to address chronic homelessness across the province and will provide greater flexibility to support a wide range of homelessness prevention and supportive housing initiatives. The funding will also provide the necessary flexibility to fund capital projects and provide longer-term rental assistance as appropriate.
The ministry intends to review the funding allocation methodology for the HPP funding envelope, new and updated data sources and new indicators may be identified, the ministry intends to consult with service managers, more information will be provided over the next year.
Community Housing Program Facilities Management
COVID-19
Now that Public Health has released Covid-19 restrictions, staff have reopened building Common Rooms but have maintained room capacity. Residents seem to be very happy with this and more functions that occurred on site are also now resuming.
Work Orders
During the quarter (January – March 2022) a total of 301 Work Orders were generated: 207 for Community Housing; 16 for Administration Offices, and 78 for Paramedic Services. There was a total of 180 Work Orders closed or resolved during that time. Work orders are closed if the work is done in-house, or when the invoice is paid if from an outside source.
St. Charles – Window replacement/Overhead Doors and Brick Repairs
The St. Charles Building has received a substantial facelift by receiving new windows throughout. The project started in late fall and finished in late March. The trimming is now done, and final inspections done in April.
Little Current Project – New Build
Correspondence from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing received on January 20, 2022 advised that they have conditionally approved funding in the amount of $623,865 for 2 of the Units at the new Seniors project in NEMI Township for the units to be deemed affordable under the OPHI program.
Capital Projects with Housing Services Corporation
Work is underway for the projects identified in the Capital Plan from the last report in Q-4. To date, there have been 3 projects that have gone out for Quote Requests and during the quarter the consultants have provided 2 reports for the Sudbury East Area. Also awarded during the quarter is the contract for the Thermal Scans to review the Community Housing Buildings Electrical Systems.
It is expected that the tender for the expected work at 3 S. E. locations will be levied in Q-2, as well as the RFQ for the balcony slab study and sanitary drain line inspections.
A summary of Capital Projects underway are below.
• Electrical Switch Gears – Little Current and Manitowaning
• Balcony rehabilitation – Little Current, Mindemoya and Manitowaning
• Sanitary Drain Line replacement – Marguerite (6 Units)
Summary
The DSB had a very busy quarter. If municipal Councils have any questions or would like DSB staff to attend a municipal Council meeting, please feel free to contact me directly.
Donna Stewart
Associate Chief Administrative Officer
Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board
Phone: 705-222-0499
E mail: donna.stewart@msdsb.net
Website: www.msdsb.net