November 26, 2020
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.
The DSB 2020 Third Quarter (Unaudited) Financial Report was presented to the Board and projects a year-end municipal surplus of $393,337. This surplus includes Ontario Works forecasted to be on budget. Children’s Services is forecasted to be on budget. Community Housing is forecasted to be under budget by $282,604. Paramedic Services is forecasted to be under budget by $100,790. Interest revenue on non-reserve accounts is forecasted to be a $9,943 surplus over budget.
The DSB quarterly financial reports are available on the DSB website by clicking the following link: Quarterly Financial Reports
Paramedics continue to play an integral role in all things COVID-19 across our service area. A redesign of team deployment was visited and operationalized based on current state and forecasted activities. The redesign involves deploying the COVID-19 Paramedic Response Team three 12-hour shifts per week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) versus the existing Monday to Friday 8-hour model. This simple redesign of our delivery model has proven to be most effective in being able to service the DSB’s entire service area within a reasonable timeframe.
The Paramedic Ride was incorporated in 2013 is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the Paramedic community. The mission is to raise funds in support of the Canadian Paramedic Memorial Foundation.
The funds will support the construction of a monument in the nations’ Capital to commemorate those Paramedics who have lost their lives in the line-of-duty. Every year, Paramedics from all over Ontario assemble in downtown Toronto and ride their bicycles to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The journey is a grueling 4-day trek that ends with a ceremony in Ottawa to honour the 50 Paramedics that have lost their lives in the line of duty. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Paramedic Ride had to be cancelled but the mission would go on with the Paramedic memorial bell travelling across the province. Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB marked one of 52 stops for the Ontario Paramedic Association and the Paramedic Memorial Bell. Members of the Manitoulin-Sudbury Paramedic Ride team escorted the bell from the 10-mile bluffs on Manitoulin Island all the way to Espanola. The names of 50 paramedics inscribed on the bell were each read aloud at a ceremony followed by a ring for each individual that has fallen.
Discussions have begun between the Paramedic Services and Public Health Sudbury & Districts on exploring the opportunity to begin a Community Paramedicine Naloxone Program. The program involves at risk community members being referred to the CP program and the Paramedics would set up an appointment to deliver a Naloxone kit and provide some education on use and safety.
As of July 27th, 2020, 13 of the 15 centre based child care programs in the Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB reopened at partial capacity. The remaining two centres reopened in September when school resumed. Child Care staff have responded positively to the reopening of the system and have adapted well to the many changes.
Enrolment is lower than it was before the closure period, staff are reviewing enrolment this fall to determine impacts to the system. As of September 1, families were required to confirm if they would like to keep their child care space or not. As expected, some families chose to not return to child care at this time, the same has been seen within the school setting with families choosing online options for their children.
Staffing has been challenging given the current health and safety requirements and the lack of supply staff in the system, it has been difficult to replace staff when they are awaiting a COVID-19 test. Each time a staff or child is excluded from a program pending a negative COVID-19 test, a Serious Occurrence Report (SOR) is submitted to the Ministry of Education (MEDU), in the period July 1-September 30th, 2020, 51 SOR’s were submitted.
Staff continue to work with providers and public health to revise local plans in response to MEDU direction, while ensuring the plans protect children, staff, and families throughout the reopening. New policies were developed, which continue to be modified as required, focusing on screening, disinfecting, staff training, prioritization of children and health and safety.
Staff prepared funding reports for the Ministry of Education identifying the costs associated with both the closure and reopening period and await approval of the submission. Once the submission is approved staff will be better positioned to plan for the system for the remainder of the year.
Access to quality and timely childcare is critical for the local, provincial, and national economic recovery plan. Staff will continue to work closely with providers to ensure the safety of children, families, and staff.
On August 13, 2020 staff received a memo confirming the release of the Operational Guidance for the Re-Opening of EarlyON Child and Family Centres. Staff worked with providers and Public Health Sudbury and Districts to develop local reopening plans. It was determined that EarlyON would resume indoor in person programming in late fall and would continue with virtual and outdoor programming.
Staff received confirmation in August that the Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board would be receiving Federal Safe Restart Funding. The purpose of the funding is to ensure a safe, sufficient and adequate supply of child care is available to support the gradual return to work as the economy reopens.
The Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB allocation is $894,181. It is expected funds will be received in early October. Staff are in the process of finalizing plans to distribute the funds to providers, allocations will be based on provider licence capacity.
MEDU has also advised of Public Reporting of Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 in Licenced Child Care will begin as of September 11, 2020.
In the third quarter of 2020, the Ontario Works/Temporary Care caseload average is 519. Compared to last year at this time, the caseload has decreased by 1%.
On September 30, 2020, the government announced its plan to support economic recovery and employment through a new recovery and renewal plan for social assistance.
The government has recognized the need to change ways of delivering services and the first phase of the social assistance recovery and renewal plan will roll out over the next few months. There are four key areas:
The Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB residents who are at greater risk during emergencies and who have registered as vulnerable, will have their key information placed into Computer Aided Dispatch systems of emergency response agencies. This voluntary, confidential service will allow those with mobility, vision/hearing challenges, or those with cognitive challenges, those who require electricity for life-sustaining equipment such as life support, oxygen, dialysis, etc. to receive the supports they require. This information would be disseminated to agency personnel during either an emergency incident, or an extended/widespread community event such as electrical outage, flooding, or forest fires.
The Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB received a letter from the Vulnerable Persons Registry Coordinator with the next steps in the implementation and expanding the Vulnerable Persons Registry (VPR) to cover all communities within our catchment area. The program is fully funded by the Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB.
Community Mobilization tables use an integrated team approach based on collaboration across agency mandates to respond rapidly to emerging crisis situations, develop solutions within a circle of care, identify needs and gaps, and build on an engaged and caring community.
The purpose of the program is to provide a venue for multi-agency collaboration in the identification of situations of acutely elevated risk and to serve as the foundation for collaborative response planning and intervention implementation. The program reduces risk, prevents crime, and increases community safety by working together to ensure that those who are vulnerable in our community are offered appropriate and available supports.
Since the launch in October 2018, ten referrals have been brought forward to Espanola and Area Situation Table (EAST), nine of which (90%) met the threshold for Acutely Elevated Risk (AER).
The Canadian Mental Health Association Sudbury/Manitoulin Situation Table report provides a summary of EAST activities to date, including agency engagement, referral demographics and risk information. Note: data is only captured for situations that meet the AER threshold; this report primarily contains data related to January to June 2020 where one case was brought forward to EAST. The number of risk factors identified for the referral brought forward in June 2020 was nine.
Sudbury East Mobilization Table (SEMT) is the newest of the tables which began October 22, 2019 to support the municipalities of French River, St. Charles, Markstay-Warren, and Killarney. SEMT has 16 partner agencies.
We continue to work hard in promoting Employment Services, Youth Job Connect and Youth Job Connect Summer programs. This year was more challenging due to COVID.
Youth Job Connection Summer program, which is a program geared to high school students facing challenging life circumstances was delivered through the summer months for youths between the ages of 15 to 18. This summer, 14 students were successfully placed and completed the program.
As of September 30, 2020, the number of waiting applicants increased by 1%. The applicant breakdown is as follows: Total applications to end of quarter is 528.
1 Bedroom 421 (+18)
2 Bedroom 50 (-4)
3 Bedroom 35 (-10)
4 bedroom 22 (0)
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 229 active DSS recipients.
Per DSB Policy, every effort is being made where the waitlist allows, to mix the Community Housing buildings with rent-geared-to-income, affordable and market rent tenants. We have secured 10 full market rent tenants and 56 affordable rent tenants throughout the portfolio as of the end of the third quarter.
As of the end of the third quarter of 2020, 163/275 of the portfolio’s units are designated as smoke-free. This represents 59% of the full portfolio currently. Units are designated as turn-over occurs.
On July 22, 2020, the Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act received Royal Assent. The amendments to the Acts are a part of the following:
The legislative amendments are broad and enabling. The government is committed to working with sector partners to develop proposed regulations setting out the details on how the new legislative provisions would work on the ground in communities.
The new provisions in the legislation are planned to come into force incrementally over time, as regulatory details are developed. This will help give communities and housing providers the time they need to make important business decisions and to plan for implementation.
The changes outlined will depend on the approval of future regulations to be developed over the coming years. The ministry is committed to continuing to work with its municipal partners and sector stakeholders in all areas of regulation development as we enter this period of transformational change.
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing - Social Services Relief Fund (SSRF) Phase 2
SSRF Phase 2 brings the total SSRF investment for Service Managers and Indigenous Program Administrators to $510 million ($148 million in initial SSRF announced on March 23, 2020, $150 million in SSRF announced on July 2, 2020, and $212 million in additional SSRF announced on August 12, 2020).
SSRF Phase 2 builds on the support being delivered as part of the COVID-19 Action Plan to Protect Vulnerable Ontarians and will help Ontario safely restart its economy and become more resilient to future waves of COVID-19, which are key priorities of the federal funding under the Safe Restart Agreement.
The objectives for SSRF Phase 2 as are follows:
Mitigate ongoing risk for vulnerable people, especially in congregate care settings:
All Service Managers were provided with an initial planning allocation. The Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB received $897,838.
The Manitoulin-Sudbury DSB staff reached out to Manitoulin Family Resources (MFR) agency to discuss the SSRF Phase 2 funding and whether or not they would have any need for the funding for potential shelter, food bank and/or thrift store demands.
MFR indicated that capital funding for retrofit of the Violent Against Women (VAW) shelter would be required.
They further indicated that funding would allow them to build an expansion which allows for community-based counsellors to provide safe service to both VAW shelter residents and those still in the community who may need to be linked to VAW shelter service.
Lastly indicated a need for funding for a new food bank/thrift store would allow the resumption of needed services of making inexpensive household goods and clothing available to the public as well as meeting the needs of the food banks expanded client base.
DSB staff will continue to work closely with MFR to ensure that the business case, if approved, will be implemented accordingly.
During the quarter (July - September 2020) a total of 251 Work Orders were generated: 183 for Community Housing; 16 for Administration Offices, and 52 for Paramedic Services. There was a total of 169 Work Orders closed or resolved during that time.
Custodian Staff continue to ensure that Housing Buildings and ISS Offices receive daily sanitizing to assist with helping to stop the spread of Covid-19. Staff throughout have been provided with sufficient personal protective equipment and sanitization supplies to ensure that common areas in all DSB locations are sanitized daily.
All winter snow contracts have been secured and signed with the exception of Gogama. This location has lost our contractor for the area this past Spring and staff are working diligently in partnership with the Local Services Board to secure a vendor for this area.
Sites have had or are currently having their generators serviced to ensure continuity of power in case of emergency. Sites are all equipped with a back up generator for emergency power supply. Sites have had their HVAC systems serviced for the heating season.
The DSB had a very busy third quarter. If municipal Councils have any questions or would like DSB staff to attend a municipal Council meeting, please feel free to contact me at the address below.
Fern Dominelli
Chief Administrative Officer
Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board
Phone: 705-222-7777
E mail: fern.dominelli@msdsb.net
Website: www.msdsb.net
