Present:

Chair: Councillor J. Sudds
Vice-Chair: Councillor K. Egli
Councillors: D. Deans, E. El-Chantiry, M. Fleury, C. Kitts, M. Luloff, C. McKenney, C. A. Meehan

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES

Minutes 14 - 15 October 2020

CONFIRMED

CORPORATE FINANCE SERVICE

1.

2021 DRAFT OPERATING AND CAPITAL BUDGET – COMMUNITY AND PROTECTIVE SERVICES COMMITTEE

ACS2020-FSD-FIN-0023

CITY WIDE

Referred from the City Council meeting of November 4, 2020

I, Councillor Catherine McKenney, declare a potential, deemed pecuniary interest on the following portions of the 2021 Community and Protective Services Committee Draft Operating and Capital Budget:

• Housing Services Operating Resource Requirement (Page 37) as follows:

-       Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (p. 37);

-       Home for Good (p. 37)

-       Reaching Home (p. 37)

as my spouse is employed by the Options Bytown, an organization that will receive funding from, or would be eligible to receive funding from, these budget line items.

I, Councillor Diane Deans, declared a potential, deemed indirect pecuniary interest on the following portions of the 2021 Community and Protective Services Committee Draft Operating and Capital Budget:

·         Children’s Services, as follows:

i)             User fees (p. 35);

ii)            Municipal Child Care Centres Operating Resource Requirement (p. 33-34)

as my daughter works at the Centre Éducatif Tournesol Municipal Child Care Centre, which receives funding from these budget line items.

Councillor McKenney and Councillor Deans did not take part in the discussion on these items.

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

That the Community and Protective Services Committee consider the relevant portions of the draft 2021 Operating and Capital Budgets and forward its recommendations to Council, sitting as Committee of the Whole, for consideration at the meeting to be held December 9, 2020.

The following staff spoke to a PowerPoint presentation on the 2021 Budget for Community and Protective Services Committee:

• Isabelle Jasmin – Deputy City Treasurer
• Anthony Di Monte - General Manager, Emergency and Protective Services
• Donna Gray – General Manager, Community and Social Services
• Dan Chenier - General Manager, Recreation, Cultural and Facility Services
• Luc Gagné - Director, Parks, Forestry and Stormwater Services, Public Works & Environmental Services

A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is held on file with the City Clerk’s office.

Following the presentation, the Committee heard from the following delegations:

1)    *Kaite Burkholder - Alliance to End Homelessness

2)    *Amanda Quance - Child Care Now – Ottawa

3)    Marie Eveline and Dennis Jackson - Volunteer Ottawa

4)    *Sally Rutherford - Somerset West Community Health

5)    * Jenni Campbell and Tasia Brown   

6)    *Michelle Hurtubise and Kyle Gordon - Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre

7)    *Ray Sullivan – Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation

8)    *Peter Tilley - The Ottawa Mission

9)    *Mike Bulthuis and Simone Thibault - Centretown Community Health Centre

10)  Jennifer Fletcher - Child Care Now

11) *Cheryl Parrott - Hintonburg Community Association

12)  Nathan Prier     

13) *Johanne Leroux - Vanier Community Association

14) *John Sobey - Ottawa Professional Firefighters Association

15)  Meghan White -            Period Packs

16)  Khulud Baig – CAWI

17)  Paul Norris – Hunt Club Park Community Association

[ *         All individuals marked with an asterisk either provided their comments in writing or by email; all such comments are held on file with the City Clerk. ]

Written submission from:

-   Cynthia Hadden

Many of the delegations spoke on the following items and concerns:

·         Kudos to the City for the Homelessness initiative but more needs to be done. City should look at the purchase or lease of hotels or apartment buildings that are struggling right now.

·         COVID-19 has caused severe and crucial reduction in donations and some groups are struggling.

·         Families are not aware of the subsidy program. They want new childcare facilities to be built.  They’re looking for Ottawa to allocate 20% funding to childcare if the province doesn’t step up.

·         Volunteer Ottawa has never received funding from the City but will need funds to operate by spring.

·         More funds are needed for Social Services.  Rooming houses are not meeting standards, many issues of mental health during this pandemic.

·         Recovery plan should include affordable housing. This is the first budget since approving the Homelessness plan. When the pandemic hit, the City stepped up. Staff in housing are amazing but they can’t meet goals if no funding is given to this initiative.

·         Kudos to the City for funds for affordable housing but not keeping up with the waiting list.

·         Homelessness is still a great concern in Ottawa.

·         Support for the most vulnerable is stretching resources in all domains.

·         It is time to implement a Vacant Building tax just as has been done successfully in Vancouver and Winnipeg and hopefully soon to be implemented in Toronto. There must be a disincentive to leaving residential buildings vacant, especially during a homelessness crisis.

·         Divert money allocated to shelters and hotels/motels to build and invest in affordable housing and Housing First to house all families currently living in hotels/motels in permanent safe housing.

·         Menstrual products should be provided to lower income groups.  Women/girls miss school/work, and don’t have access to products they need. Work with other agencies to help provide products. Asked for funding to do a pilot project.

Following the delegations, staff responded to members’ questions listed below:

- The number of property standards calls, and noise complaints increase but not the number of staff.

- Since Volunteer Ottawa assisted greatly with the floods, would it be possible to get them funding through emergency services?

- Are there ongoing mental health programs for frontline employees such as paramedics and fire services? Senior staff are fully aware and working hard on programs, etc.

- By-law has been front line during COVID-19; are there enough resources in the budget to deal with the ongoing pandemic? Staff say that it is an odd year to do analysis but say yes.

- Empty buildings by-law? This is on the workplan for 2021.   

- 2 outdoor rink locations won’t get huts this year. 23 get huts which is part of the legacy program. Newer parks have bunkers, but older parks use trailers. Because of COVID-19, suppliers said there would be shortage of trailers due to construction to allow social distancing.

Before introducing the roadmap motion Councillor Egli introduced his motion on behalf of Chair Sudds.

Following these, Chair Sudds made wrap up comments.

A Technical Amendment Motion, Childcare Motion and the roadmap motion was then put before the Committee and carried as amended.

Motion CPS 2020 15/1

Moved by Councillor K. Egli

WHEREAS on November 4, 2020 Council received and tabled the 2021 Draft Capital and Operating Budget (ACS2020-FSD-FIN-0023) and associated Committee budget books; and

WHEREAS it was discovered that minor corrections were required in the Community and Protective Services Committee Draft 2021 Budget document tabled with Council on November 4, 2020; and

WHEREAS Finance has subsequently issued a revised Draft Community and Protective Services Committee Draft 2021 Budget, which includes the following corrections:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Community and Protective Services Committee receive and consider the revised Community and Protective Services Draft 2021 Budget document.

CARRIED

Motion CPS 2020 15/2

Moved by Councillor K. Egli

WHEREAS the pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the child care and early years sector causing significant disruptions to local agencies; 

WHEREAS the sector requires on-going support from Children’s Services throughout the duration of the pandemic, and continuing into the recovery phase;

WHEREAS Children’s Services’ COVID-19 response continues to evolve to support these essential services for families which are also vital to the economic recovery of the City;

WHEREAS the economic recovery of the City depends on families having access to affordable child care, including before and after-school care and COVID-19 continues to change and alter the needs of families across the City;

WHEREAS studies have shown that women are more likely to be disproportionately excluded from the workforce when child care services are inaccessible and that an investment in child care is a proven support to our economic recovery, particularly women’s return to; the workforce and;

WHEREAS, the Province of Ontario announced a change to the child care cost-share ratio to take effect in 2021, moving from an 80:20 cost-sharing ratio to 50:50 on all administrative funding;

WHEREAS, the Province of Ontario indicated that these changes would reduce the administrative burden on cities and achieve cost savings through efficiencies;

WHEREAS, these changes would mean a revenue loss of $2.6M for the City of Ottawa and drastically reduce the supports to the sector which are essential to supporting families and not-for-profit child care and early years service providers;

WHEREAS, the City of Ottawa forecasts that these changes will create a budget pressure of $520K for Children’s Services and a reduction of seven FTEs that provide direct support to agencies, community partners and families receiving fee subsidies;

WHEREAS, the City of Ottawa supports the advocacy campaign that the Ontario Municipal Social Services Association (OMSSA) have undertaken to see these changes eliminated;

WHEREAS COVID-19 has greatly increased responsibilities of cities that serve as Consolidated Municipal Service Manager (CMSM) to support families and the viability of the sector;

WHEREAS this impact to the Children’s Services budget and FTE count will significantly impact city-wide program delivery, reduce capacity to implement and support the sector with future provincial programs associated with the COVID-19 response, impact the momentum and progress made on the Council-approved Children’s Services Child Care and Early Years Service System Plan 2019-2023

WHEREAS Children’s Services would be managing higher fee subsidy caseloads resulting in less supports for families applying for and looking for help with placement coordination which will result in longer wait times and may impact families with difficult employment decisions.

WHEREAS Ottawa City Council increased access to affordable, quality and responsive child care services and identified it as a priority in the Thriving Communities 2019-2022 Term of Council Priorities; and

WHEREAS, Mayor Watson wrote to the Province’s Minister of Finance, Rod Phillips on October 16, 2020 to ask that these changes be eliminated;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Community & Protective Services Committee recommend Council request that Mayor Watson and the Chair of Community Protective Services Committee, send a follow up letter to Premier Doug Ford and Minister Stephen Lecce requesting that the province confirm the 2021 allocations and include continued investments in child care operations and the Safe Restart Funding (SRF), and that the proposed cost-sharing funding changes be eliminated as the impacts to the child care and early years providers would significantly impact the sector.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that once the Provincial allocation has been announced that the General Manager of Community Social Services Department and the Director of Children’s Services, in consultation with the Child Care and Early Years System Planning Advisory Group, provide an update via a memo to Council outlining the impacts of COVID-19 and the ongoing supports being offered to the sector.

CARRIED

Motion CPS 2020 15/3

Moved by Councillor K. Egli

That the Community and Protective Services Committee recommend that Council, sitting as Committee of the Whole, approve the Community and Protective Services Committee 2021 Draft Operating and Capital Budgets as follows:

1.    Emergency and Protective Services Budget, as follows:

a)    General Manager’s Office and Business Support Services - Operating Resource Requirement (page 1);

b)   Security and Emergency Management, as follows:

i)     User Fees (page 5);

ii)    Operating Resource Requirement (page 4);

c)    Fire Services, as follows:

i)     User fees (pages 9 - 11);

ii)    Operating Resource Requirement (page 8);

d)   Paramedic Service, as follows:

i)     User Fees (page 15);

ii)    Operating Resource Requirement (page 14);

e)    By-Law and Regulatory Services, as follows:

i)     User fees (pages 18-26);

ii)    Operating Resource Requirement (page 17).

f)     Public Policy Development –Operating Resource Requirement (page 28)

CARRIED, with Councillor Fleury and Councillor McKenney dissenting on recommendation e) ii.

2.    Community and Social Services Budget, as follows:

a)    General Manager’s Office and Business Support Services Operating Resource Requirement (revised page 29);

b)   Employment and Social Services Operating Resource Requirement (page 31);

c)    Children’s Services, as follows:

i)     User fees (page 35);

ii)    Operating Resource Requirement (pages 33 - 34)

d)   Housing Services Operating Resource Requirement, as follows:

i)     Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (page 37);

ii)    Home for Good (page 37)

iii)   Reaching Home (page 37)

iv)  Remaining Housing Services Operating Resource Requirement (page 37);

e)    Long Term Care Operating Resource Requirement (page 39);

f)     Partner and Stakeholder Initiatives, Operating Resource Requirement (page 41).

CARRIED, with Councillor D. Deans recused from recommendation c), and with Councillor C. McKenney recused from recommendations d) i, d) ii, and d) iii.

3.    Recreation, Cultural and Facility Services Budget, as follows:

a)    General Manager’s Office and Business Support Services

i)     2021 User fees (revised page 45);

ii)    Operating Resource Requirement (page 44);

b)   Community Recreation and Cultural Programs

i)     2021 User Fees (revised pages 49 - 54);

ii)    Operating Resource Requirement (page 48);

c)    City Wide Programs, Aquatics and Specialized Services and

i)     2021 User Fees (revised pages 58 - 60);

ii)    Operating Resource Requirement (page 57);

d)   Parks and Facilities Planning

i)     2020 User Fees (page 63);

ii)     Operating Resource Requirement (page 62)

e)    Facility Operation Services

i)     2020 User Fees (page 67);

ii)    Operating Resource Requirement (page 66).

4.    Public Works and Environmental Services Department – Parks - Operating Resource Requirement (page 69).

5.    Community and Protective Services Committee Capital Budget as follows: (pages 70-73, individual projects listed on pages 123 –206).

CARRIED

The Committee voted on sustaining the Chair’s decision of calling the following Direction to Staff as out of order.

Motion

Moved by Councillor C. McKenney

WHEREAS the economic hardships experienced by many low-income residents and families in the city as a result of the COVID pandemic have highlighted the ongoing growing inequity gaps;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that staff be directed to present to Committee an assessment of the benefits of sliding scales for transit fares on low-income wage earners who do not qualify for either the Community Pass or the EquiPass based on the experience of other municipalities; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that staff also be directed to comment and advise Committee on the benefits of eliminating means testing for special passes. 

CARRIED, on a division of 5 yeas and 4 nays, as follows:

YEAS (5):

Councillors Egli, El-Chantiry, Kitts, Luloff, Sudds

NAYS (4):

Councillors Deans, Fleury, McKenney, Meehan

The above motion for Direction to Staff will therefore not go forward.

OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK

ARTS, CULTURE AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE

2.

ARTS, CULTURE AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE - PROPOSED 2020-2022 WORKPLAN

ACS2020-OCC-GEN-0032

CITY WIDE

REPORT RECOMMENDATION

That the Community and Protective Services Committee recommend that Council approve the 2020-2022 Arts, Culture and Recreation Advisory Committee Workplan, as detailed in Document 1.

CARRIED

RECREATION, CULTURAL AND FACILITY SERVICES

PARKS AND FACILITIES PLANNING SERVICES

3.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP CAPITAL PROGRAMS ANNUAL REPORT

ACS-RCF-GEN-0002

CITY WIDE

REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS

That the Community and Protective Services Committee recommend Council:

1.         Receive the listing of projects funded under delegated authority through the Community Partnership Minor Capital program in 2019, as detailed in Document 1.

2.         Receive the list of 2020 Community Partnership Major Capital proposals received by the March 1st deadline in 2020, as detailed in Document 2.

3.         Receive the status update of prior years’ Community Partnership Major Capital projects previously approved in principle, as detailed in Document 3.

CARRIED

INFORMATION PREVIOUSLY DISTRIBUTED

A

USE OF DELEGATED AUTHORITY DURING 2019 BY THE COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL SERVICES DEPARTMENT UNDER SCHEDULE “D” CITY OF OTTAWA BY-LAW NO. 2018-397, AS AMENDED BY BY-LAW NO. 2019-280.

ACS2020-CSS-GEN-0012

CITY WIDE

B

USE OF DELEGATED AUTHORITY DURING 2019 BY THE RECREATION, CULTURAL AND FACILITY SERVICES DEPARTMENT, AS SET OUT IN SCHEDULE “E” OF BY-LAW 2019-280

ACS2020-RCF-GEN-0001

CITY WIDE

NOTICES OF MOTIONS (FOR CONSIDERATION AT A SUBSEQUENT MEETING)

Motion

Moved by Councillor M. Fleury

WHEREAS the COVID19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of quality Long Term Care facilities and with the City of Ottawa operating 4 long term care homes;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that staff be directed to present to Committee and Council a 5-year capital plan for City owned Long Term Care homes by Q2 2021.

Motion

Moved by Councillor C. McKenney

WHEREAS the COVID19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of quality Long Term Care facilities and with the City of Ottawa operating 4 long term care homes;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that staff be directed to present to Committee and Council a plan regarding transformative culture change i.e. adapting innovative models of care such as The Butterfly Model by Q2 2021.

Motion

Moved by Councillor M. Fleury and Councillor C. McKenney

WHEREAS the issues identified with Tabour Apartments at 130 St Denis are alarming and are putting children and their parents at risk of poor mental and physical health outcomes;

WHEREAS tenants do not enjoy the benefits of protections through the Landlord Tenant Act as other tenants would with leases;

WHEREAS the per diem costs of the 24 units at the Tabor Apartments could be better utilized to provide permanent housing for families;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the City launch a proper procurement process to house the 24 families living at the Tabor Apartments (130 St. Denis);

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City cease the hotel per diem relationhip and use of Tabor Apartments (130 St. Denis) no later than July 1^st, 2021.

ADJOURNMENT