The 2010 Draft City Budge

PBO has written an open letter to City Council:

January 15, 2010

Dear Mayor O’Brien and City Councillors:

I am writing, on behalf of People for a Better Ottawa (PBO) to first acknowledge the efforts of City Council to maintain, and in many cases, increase the funding to community services and arts and culture funding in the 2010 draft budget. It is particularly important that the Community Sustainability Fund remains as a resource to the community service sector to help retain skilled and dedicated staff by paying them an adequate wage.

It is the view of the members of PBO that the vast majority of uploaded provincial dollars to be received by our City between 2010 and 2018, should be reinvested in our city’s valuable but underfunded social service sector, including social housing.

The provincial uploading initiative now underway is a recognition, by the current Ontario Government, that it must take back some of the financial responsibility for social service spending that has been downloaded to municipalities over the last 15 years. Ottawa’s social service and social housing infrastructure has been eroded to the point of distress due to this downloading, as the City has struggled to meet growing and competing demands from its limited property tax base.

As you are aware, about $20 million of ODSP upload dollars are to be received by the City in 2010. In the 2010 draft budget, only $6.1 million has remained within the Community and Protective Services envelope. Furthermore, only $2 million of this money has been reinvested back into the social service sector. As well, by our analysis, the social housing budget has seen an increase that is approximately $1 million below the average departmental increase of 2.9 %.

Ottawa’s voluntary sector partners with the City to provide essential and effective support to vulnerable individuals and families. In particular, they provide support to those individuals and families who are struggling to maintain their independence, dignity and well-being on incomes that fall well below the poverty line. The Ottawa’s Vital Signs report of 2009 notes that almost one quarter of people aged 15 to 24 in the City of Ottawa live with incomes below the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) and that our food banks have seen a 9% increase in visits between March 2007 and March 2009. Vital Signs also reports that both housing and the gap between rich and poor were cited as the second most important priorities for action, after health and wellness.

A strong network of community-based organizations, working in partnership with the City, is key to developing cost-effective local solutions towards population health and economic wellbeing. The Community Development Framework and soon-to-be-presented Poverty Reduction Strategy are vital tools in these efforts. Both will require specific funds and other resources if they are to be effectively implemented.

The City of Ottawa has a unique opportunity to reinvest in its vital community services. Our people and our social infrastructure, like our roads, need continuous adequate investment. A triple bottom line approach recognizes the long-term economic benefits that accrue when a government invests in the infrastructure that helps individuals and families maintain the emotional and physical health that underlies their financial self-sufficiency.

We look forward to working with City Council throughout the rest of the 2010 budget process.

Sincerely,

Jenny Gullen,
Coordinator, People for a Better Ottawa