TIMMINS - The largest financial contributor to the social services board is looking at the possibility of leaving the agency.
Timmins council has asked for a report to look at the possibility of leaving the Cochrane District Social Services Administration Board (CDSSAB).
While one councillor said he doesn't want the city to be the social services business, others argued it already is.
The item was put on the May 27 Timmins council agenda by Coun. Bill Gvozdanovic, who was recently named to the CDSSAB board.
He wants the report to show the financial implications of leaving and timelines. If council is split on the decision, he said he'll bring it back as a referendum item for the public to vote on.
Before the province created district social services administration boards (DSSABs), social services were a municipal department.
The CDSSAB was created in 1999 and includes the City of Timmins and municipalities along the Highway 11 corridor from Matheson to Hearst. It also operates in Moosonee.
The original core services were paramedic services, community housing, children's services and Ontario Works, with homelessness prevention being added later. It also offers non-mandated services.
Coun. Andrew Marks — who sits on CDSSAB and whose brother, Brian Marks, is the CAO — said the City of Timmins doesn't have the space, personnel or experience for social services.
If the city were to leave the CDSSAB, he said it would deconstruct Ontario Works, ambulance emergency services, the paramedicine program and daycare spot allocations.
"And then when you start looking at the relocation of housing services alone — we all know with the aging infrastructure that is a responsibility that would fall directly back into the taxpayers of Timmins. Roughly, a new ambulance is a one per cent tax increase,” he said.
It could also create hardship for the other member municipalities and isolate Timmins, he said.
"That’s not my number one concern, as I’m primarily concerned with the City of Timmins, but I firmly believe that being a part of this organization, with their expertise and their current knowledge, is the best way for us to be moving those four primary services, which we would be responsible for then. I don’t want to get into the housing business, I don’t want to get into the repair business, I don’t want to get into the childcare business, I don’t want to get into the ambulance delivery service or emergency services business,” Marks said.
With the City of Timmins making up half of the CDSSAB board, Coun. Steve Black argued that the city is already in all of those businesses.
“At the end of the day, this would be a major realignment of how social services and EMS services are provided in the region. It would have impacts on all the communities in the region, but I’m not prepared to dismiss it or support it without putting the information on the table,” he said.
Black's support for the report isn't necessarily because he supports leaving DSSAB. He wants decisions to be made based on factual information, though.
“Fortunately, we do have a CAO that is intimately familiar with CDSSAB services having been the CAO of the CDSSAB for many years prior to coming to the city,” he said.
Coun. Lorne Feldman also sees merit in the report and doesn't think "any information is bad information".
“Timmins has some very unique and acute responsibilities that other members of the Cochrane DSSAB don’t face to the same degree we do in areas of addiction and homelessness and mental health,” he said.
The City of Timmins is listed as part of the CDSSAB under provincial legislation.
“Ultimately, the decision wouldn’t lie here at this council table, but would be with the province. So it would be a request to the province to be able to explore separating the City of Timmins out of the DSSAB and being able to administer social services directly,” said Mayor Michelle Boileau.
