Rainy River DSSAB CAO Dan McCormick at DSSAB's recent annual meeting
The Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board says it still doesn’t have all of the details on how government funding changes will impact its services.
Chief Administrative Officer Dan McCormick says they have been told funding for Ontario Works is being frozen at 2018 levels. Any economic increase would likely fall upon the municipalities to pick up.
There’s also proposed definition changes to the Ontario Disability Support Program that could increase the DSSAB’s caseload by 40 per cent.
“If the 40 percent increase is there in the caseload and the money’s not there to deliver the case, but were bound by law to deliver the services, it’ll be a direct impact on our local taxpayer,” warns McCormick.
McCormick says funding for their children services are also remaining the same as last year, but he expects that to decrease in 2020. The government was looking at funding cuts to those services McCormick says would have been a $300-thousand hit to the budget.
For community housing, formerly known as social housing, the DSSAB is getting an increase for its homelessness program. McCormick says they are receiving additional money related to two new programs.
McCormick notes some of the things being requested by the provincial government are already being done in northern Ontario. He cites the request for line-by-line audits as an example.
“Our DSSAB does that every year. I know all our local councils do that every year. It’s not something new and exciting and going to save a ton of money.”
He is worried about the impact on small rural areas and a regionalization of services, a direction he sees the government heading.
