At what have become regular information-sharing sessions from the Niagara Region at town council meetings, commissioner of community services Adrienne Jugley provided a summary of the work her department does, both in the region and in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and some of the challenges it faces.
Regional Coun. Andrea Kaiser has been organizing the sessions to update town councillors on the work at the region, including the many programs offered to residents across Niagara.
The programs includes children’s services, homelessness services, community housing, seniors services and social assistance. In many of these areas of responsibility, the region’s community services department acts as a municipal service manager, meaning it delivers services on behalf of the province as part of the Municipal Act. The policies in these areas are not the region’s, but come from the province, Jugley explained.
Community services employs about 2,200 staff, which represents more than 50 per cent of the Niagara Region’s workforce, and has an annual budget of around $380 million — a large chunk of which is money from the province, she explained.
Children’s services
Children’s services is responsible for planning, funding and administering the local licensed child care system in the region.
There are currently 12,000 licensed child care spaces in the region, with a little more than 300 of them in Niagara-on-the-Lake. However, NOTL residents can access available spaces across the region, which some people do because of proximity to their workplace.
Children’s services is also rolling out funding for the federal government’s Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system, which aims to provide affordable child care to families for an average of $10 per day.
When Coun. Maria Mavridis brought up the issue of waitlists for child care at the Niagara Nursery School and the closure of the Early On Centre at Crossroads Public School, Jugley acknowledged that there are waitlists for child care across the region, despite spaces being open.
The problem, she explained, is a shortage of child care providers. “The bottom line is that there aren’t enough (child care providers). They go through two years of community college and then they aren’t making much more than they would at a local restaurant. Considering the responsibility involved, that’s quite a disincentive.”
In efforts to address the shortage, the region has partnered with Niagara College and other agencies to create a partial tuition reimbursement program as an incentive to stay in the field. “We’ve also been campaigning pretty hard to the province and at the federal government that funds this that they need to have more focus on the wages, because that is what’s going to incentivize people to come into the profession and stay,” she said.
Homelessness services
Homelessness services in the region is mainly funded by the province, with a little bit from the federal government and the region also contributing. It is responsible for homeless prevention, outreach, shelters and supportive housing.
In NOTL, most of the department’s work falls under outreach, which consists of a mobile unit that comes to the community, rather than having a full-time centre here.
Jugley explained how the outreach program works. “If you see someone you are concerned about or hear of someone you are concerned about, what we ask you to do is call 211. Say you have a gentleman or a family that you are worried about, and can you please come see them, and we will send outreach, which operates seven days a week. They will come out and meet with that individual and see what we can do to get them sorted.”
“We take it for granted that there aren’t these problems in NOTL,” commented Coun. Gary Burroughs, “but when there are, they’re taken care of very well (by the region), so thank you for that.”
Community Housing
Community housing in Niagara is made up of a combination of housing owned and operated by Niagara Regional Housing (the region’s local municipal housing corporation) and other not-for-profits. There is one Niagara Region Housing property in NOTL — the 40-unit building on Davy Street.
As Jugley explained, a lot of not-for-profit housing was built 25 to 40 years ago under agreements with the province and the federal government. Funding that community housing receives from the provincial government goes toward paying the not-for-profits’ mortgages. The not-for-profits then provide housing to people in need from a centralized waiting list the region manages.
Currently there are about 10,000 people on the waiting list for community housing across the region, but the turnover is only about 450 to 500 units a year, which Jugley said is “very slow.”
The reason for the slow turnover, she explained, is a lack of funds to build housing. The region owns enough properties that they could build 10,000 units, but they don’t have the money to do so. “We are working aggressively to access any funding available to build new housing, as well as supporting the not-for-profit community to do so as well,” she said.
Compared to other communities in the region, NOTL has a low core housing need, which is determined by the percentage of people in a community that pay more than 30 per cent of their income on housing. The average core housing need in the region is between 12 to 14 per cent, and as high as 16 per cent in some communities. In NOTL, it is lower, between five and seven per cent. “So government money will go to communities that have a high core housing need,” she explained. However, the region is open to partnering with the town and any not-for-profits in the community to see if there are other ways to support more community housing in NOTL.
Seniors services
Unlike other departments under the community services umbrella, the region does not take a service manager role in seniors services. Instead, the planning and forecasting of these services comes from the ministry of health and long-term care.
Seniors services in Niagara oversees the region’s long-term care homes (of which there are 957 beds), and ensures that they comply with the Fixed Long-Term Care Act. Some of the long-term care homes are owned by the region, while others are operated by not-for-profit and for-profit organizations.
The seniors services department also provides a variety of social, wellness and outreach services focused on supporting vulnerable seniors, and adult day programs including the Falls Prevention Program at Pleasant Manor in Virgil and the Adult Day Program at the community centre in NOTL.
Jugley explained that because their funding comes from the Ministry of Health, their focus is more health-centred than the municipal recreation-
focused adult day programs. The region’s seniors programs are often for people who have early signs of dementia and other kinds of challenges, where they and their families are hoping to have some support during the day, she explained.
When asked by Coun. Sandra O’Connor whether or not the region recognizes that NOTL has the highest population of senior residents in the Niagara, Jugley said they do, but the decisions often come down to health needs. “Our role is more health-focused,” Jugley explained. “NOTL’s demographics show that our seniors are generally able-bodied, healthy, active, and independent.” It is up to the ministry to forecast and plan what the needs of a community may be in terms of senior care, and for the region to apply it, although “we do advocate for what the community needs,” she said.
Social Assistance
Community services is also responsible for administering the Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program to those in need in the region. Currently there are 17,500 residents in the Niagara Region collecting support from these programs. The department is “mandated to ensure that people have emergency assistance or Ontario Works assistance as they get their lives sorted,” Jugley explained. About 25 per cent of those receiving support through Ontario Works are on the path to a disability program, she added.
The region is working on a poverty reduction strategy that involves working with the different communities, including on issues such as transportation, child care and housing support, “some of the ‘big bucket’ things that we know really help people come out of poverty and become more self-reliant and successful,” she said. “Because, as we know, poverty looks different in every community.”
For more information on the region’s community services department, visit niagararegion.ca/government/departments/community-services.aspx.
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