Alex Kurial

The Ottawa Public Library recently unveiled a new music rental program at two of its branches in an effort to expand the type of educational services it offers to the community.

The measure was sponsored by life insurance titan Sun Life Financial, who orchestrated the initiative through a $140,000 donation to the Ottawa Public Library last year.

The Sun Life Financial Musical Instrument Lending Library will be operational at the Main and Nepean Centrepointe branches of the library.

Reaction to the new program was largely positive, with commenters expressing their joy that they would be able to try, for free, what is often a very expensive pursuit. Ottawa joined several other Canadian cities, including Vancouver, in offering this service to its community.

Why the library decided to turn to a major corporation to finance its goals remains unresolved however. Especially in the wake of a budget increase from the city of Ottawa last year.

The library received an extra 1.494 million dollars from the city under its 2018 budget report. Yet Ottawa Public Library still took the step of seeking out financial backing from a life insurance company, whilst prominently displaying their name at its branches.

Councilor Marianne Wilkinson, who sits on the Ottawa Public Library board, didn’t see a problem with the decision to seek out corporate backing.

“Yes there definitely is,” the councilor responded when asked if there is a future between libraries and private companies seeking to pitch in large amounts of money. “There are corporations that support libraries… Definitely there’s a place for business within libraries.”

Despite the six figure donation, it appears that the partnership with Sun Life came with stipulations. Wilkinson revealed that many of the better instruments are for display purposes only.

“There were some pretty good ones [instruments] that they put on display,” she said. “But they’re not available to borrow.”

This forced the library to turn to a donation drive to seek help from the community in fleshing out their musical instrument goals. Fortunately for the library this was fairly successful, although there were still some issues.

“They got quite a few donated ones,” Wilkinson explained. “They’re not always in the best condition.”

The Ottawa Public Library certainly was not willing to speak on the matter. Despite repeated attempts for a statement on the choice to seek corporate funding, or regarding the music rental program itself, the only insight offered was a link to information numbers on the library’s website.

“I’m afraid we have no one available to answer your questions personally,” was the brief response received by Communications Strategist Rachael Duplisea.

Councilor Wilkinson also revealed that this wasn’t the first time the library had turned to outside help to fund its efforts.

“We’ve had particular support from the American embassy for the 3D printers,” Wilkinson explained. The embassy also helped to fund the “makerspace”, an innovative center within the library designed to encourage critical thinking endeavors.

For now it’s clear that the Ottawa Public Library is intent on pursuing all available funding options available to them, no matter where they might come from.

Low-income families will no longer be weighed down by waitlists that determine their ability to access affordable childcare.

According to an analysis of the 2018 city budget, an additional 1,500 families in Ottawa are estimated have access to subsidized daycare after the city made efforts to reduce the wait times for financial supports.

“We’re confident that with the changes there won’t be any waiting lists in Ottawa to access subsidies,” said Coun. Mathieu Fleury, who sits on the committee responsible for all community and social services budgeting.

City council approved an additional $17.9 million for the fee subsidy budget this year, a 28% increase from 2017.

Licensed childcare centres had to raise their daycare fees to offset the extra costs from Ontario’s rising minimum wage. Jason Sabourin, Ottawa’s children’s services manager, said the fee subsidies were needed to help families cope with these additional costs.

Families are expected to receive subsidies as high as $12 thousand.

A better educational experience for low-income children

The way subsidies are allocated have also changed, said Fleury. Previously funding was allocated through a specific daycare, meaning a parent did not have the liberty of switching childcare centres because they would lose their financial aid.

Funding is now assigned to the family directly and follows them between neighbourhoods.

Early childcare educator Helene Legault  said this change gives families the option of removing their children from poor-quality daycares. They are no longer dependent on locations with short subsidy waiting lists because the financial support sticks to their record.

According to Legault, children in the high-income neighbourhoods have greater learning opportunities because their daycares can  afford more field trips and creative activities.

“I’m hoping that all children will have better experiences across the board,” she said.

More money more problems

The rise in fee subsidies belong to a series of financial increases for the early childcare sector that the provincial government announced in 2017.

In an Ottawa town hall held earlier this month, Premier Kathleen Wynne said that the Ontario government is working with cities across the province to create 100,000 new childcare spaces.

After parents receive their subsidy they are put on a second waiting list until a spot in one of the institutions opens up. The additional spaces will help reduce that second waiting list.

An additional $2.9 million was allocated to Ottawa for the project, reducing the waitlist by an estimated 170 families.

 Early childcare educators are skeptical about the increases, saying they will lack the resources to accommodate growing classrooms.

“Usually our classes get bigger but we see no pay hike for the extra workload,” said Legault.

Legault noted that more children with special needs will given placements but there are no extra funds to help support them. More resources are needed for trained experts like psychologists, she said.

Pat Dickson, an early childhood educator, said that on some days a kid with special needs will have a meltdown so intense that the rest of the class needs to be evacuated until the child calms down.

“The violence in our school is beyond our control and there is very little learning going on in that classroom,” she said. “We are making sure that that little child who needs assistance is getting it at the expense of every other child in that classroom. They dumped them in but with no support.”

The provincial government transferred $6.7 million dollars worth of its early childcare budget and decision making powers to Ottawa, said Saboruin.

The municipal government is now in charge of services like playgroups, workshops, and referral services that benefit children from infancy to age six, meaning parents and daycare workers like Legault could get a greater say into the early care of their children.

BY OLIVIA ROBINSON

Source: Report to Ottawa Public Library Board: Alternative Services Delivery Framework 2016-2020 (September 14, 2015)

The Ottawa Public Library’s bookmobile program runs from Monday to Saturday and makes 25 stops during the week. Some rural stops include Vars and Carlsbad Springs, where residents would otherwise have to drive almost 20 kilometres to reach a library branch, far beyond a walkable distance.

“We examine stop locations approximately every two years, and recently launched three new pilot stops in vulnerable communities,” said Alexandra Yarrow, Manager of Alternative Services at the Ottawa Public Library in an emailed statement.

Ottawa’s aging population is considerable cause for concern that the bookmobile program be fully operational, said Wilkinson. The soon-to-be replaced bookmobile is in constant need of repairs.

When the bookmobile breaks down, the service is temporarily replaced by one of the library’s minivans, or mini-bookmobiles. One of the main issues in replacing the bookmobile with the minivan, is that unlike the bookmobile, the minivan is not wheelchair accessible, said Wilkinson.

In a Nov. 7, 2017 report submitted by Monique Désormeaux, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Ottawa Public Library, the library stated that the new bookmobile will “promote literacy and learning through programming.”

Wilkinson echoed the library’s position that the bookmobile program is also essential to bring library services to low-income housing and immigrant families.

“We are trying to encourage reading. It’s important for children to get them to learn the language,” Wilkinson said.

The new bookmobile will be put into circulation sometime in 2019.

14 paramedics will be hired this year to support increased demand on the paramedic service.

These new hires follow 24 paramedics brought on in 2017. Since 2016, new recruits have cost the city an additional 13 per cent in salaries, according to an analysis of budget information the City of Ottawa has made available online.

Darryl Wilton, president of the Ottawa Paramedic Association, isn’t convinced this hiring strategy goes far enough.

“Those 24 paramedics and the 14 added this year, we know they’re not enough, because we can trend our increase in call volume,” Wilton said. “It is mathematically not enough paramedics to keep pace with call volume.”

Wilton estimates that the paramedic service responded to roughly 140,000 calls in 2017. The five-year trend demonstrates a 17 per cent increase in calls, according to an analysis of the Ottawa Paramedic Service 2016 annual report.

Marc-Antoine Deschamps, paramedic superintendent, expects demand on the paramedic service will continue to rise.

“Ottawa’s a growing city, there’s more and more population,” Deschamps said. “They’re aging, they get sicker, and they require more and more of our services. That’s a pressure that’s being felt across our entire healthcare system.”

“If our call volume keeps increasing, we’ll need more paramedics to keep up,” Deschamps added.

Provincial and council approved mandates require that paramedics respond to life-threatening calls within 8 minutes, 75 per cent of the time. This target has not been met since 2015, according to a 2016 report.

Although the paramedic service hasn’t officially reported their response time figures for 2017, Coun. Riley Brockington, vice-chair of the City of Ottawa Community and Protective Service Committee, said mid-year reports suggested the 24 additional paramedics were having an “immediate impact” on response times.

“We have seen a direct correlation between investments in more staff and ambulance vehicles and their ability to get to people quickly,” Coun. Brockington said.

Coun. Brockington, who is an economist, acknowledges the possibility that factors other than the 24 new hires could explain the anecdotal reduction in response times. For example, weather or traffic changes could have helped ambulances get to their destinations faster.

“I think it’s fair to say that [it] is a reasonable conclusion,” he rationalised. “I point to other services across the province where there was an investment in staff and the response times almost immediately improved.”

Changes to another key metric are less encouraging. According to Coun. Brockington, the city ran out of ambulances 290 times in 2017, almost a daily occurrence. A “level zero,” is called when no ambulances are available to respond to a 911 call. Level zero alerts increased 13% since 2016, despite 24 new paramedic hires. There were 256 level zero alerts in 2016.

Coun. Brockington clarified that code zero emergencies are a complicated metric that can’t be addressed through hiring alone. Instead, ambulance availability depends on the length of time it takes hospital emergency rooms to see patients – a figure largely outside of paramedic control.

“Until a nurse or doctor takes the patient, the paramedic has to stay there. Some are there for hours. When we have our paramedics waiting with patients in urgent care facilities or hospitals, there are times when there are no available ambulances.”

When asked what kind of investment would guarantee demand be met, Darryl Wilton replied, “Definitely more than what you’re seeing on the docket. Definitely more than 14.”

“I think what’s important is that we clearly indicate need, and then it becomes council’s decision as to whether or not they’re going to fund that need,” Wilton said.

Hiring for the new recruits has already begun. Deschamps expects the 14 new paramedics to hit the streets in July.

Ottawa was gifted a $4.7-million surplus towards social services by the Ontario government – and nobody on the receiving end knows why.

The provincial government is projected to fully fund the Social Services branch’s ‘Council Priorities’ category in 2018 – an increase from 97.2 per cent last year, according to figures in Ottawa’s 2018 municipal draft budget.

The funding is filed under the ambiguous category, ‘provincial upload.’ The City’s media relations department did not respond to a request for a financial breakdown.

The ‘Council Priorities’ amount makes up $5.2 million of increased revenue over last year, or 43 per cent of this year’s total change in revenue of $12.2-million. Based on the tabled 2018 draft budget, the extra revenue will be reinvested in the 2018 Social Services budget, lowering the branch’s net spending by over 15 per cent compared to 2017.

Coun. Riley Brockington, vice-chair of the Community and Protective Services Committee, appeared to be unaware of the surplus.

“It’s odd that the City would be able to make such a significant increase on its own, because we get our funding from taxpayers and we’re trying to keep things at two per cent,” he said.

Presented with the budget table, Brockington declined to comment on the numbers. He said he was unfamiliar with the finances of the committee – one for which he is vice-chair.

“Usually these questions are sent to our city staff – they’re the experts in that subject matter and they can give you a very detailed explanation,” he said. “I really need to send this chart to social services – I need to get staff to explain before I can do an interview.”

Similarly, the office of Coun. Diane Deans, chair of the Community and Protective Services Committee, asked that budget questions be sent to the City’s media relations department. Deans was unwilling to give comment after multiple attempts to contact her office by phone, email and in person.

READ: Ontario Works Program opens eligibility to thousands more applicants

Looking over the budget tables, Christopher Waddell said the Social Service’s branch’s financial activity is based largely on the Ontario Works program, whose eligibility criteria was expanded in September 2017.

“If they’ve changed the rules so that more people can apply, it’s logical to think that they would then increase the amount of money that’s available, because they expect more people are going to be applying,” said the Carty Chair in Business and Financial Journalism at Carleton University.

The social assistance program is run by the province. Funds are distributed through various city councils, including Ottawa’s.

Given the approaching provincial election in June, there may be other motivations behind the Ontario government’s gift.

“That may let more people benefit [from the Ontario Works funding] and people may think, ‘Well, that’s a good reason to re-elect these guys,’” Waddell said.

“Now [the City] will take that four-million and spend it on something else for sure, but that’s what it is.”

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4366222-Community-and-Protective-Services-Committee.html#annotation/a402505

Does Waddell have any ideas before the final funding amount is revealed by the provincial budget in the spring?

“One thing that everybody seems to be talking about and worried about is that the O-Train might be running over budget. So anything they can do on that front, it may go up there. But who knows – it’s a big piece of the pie, and this is a little tiny sliver of it.”

In times of increasing need for social supports, news of the multi-million dollar funding comes unexpectedly to social service organizations.

Simone Thibault is the executive director of Centretown Community Health Centre. She had not been aware of the surplus, and the news is encouraging for her organization.

“I’m very surprised!” Thibault exclaimed. “It would be interesting to see where that came from.”

Thibault would use a portion of funds to train her social support workers, who serve LGBTQ refugees, opioid addicts, street youth, those with severe mental illness, and many others with diverse needs.

“I think we’re at a tipping point in the city,” Thibault said. “Beyond the housing crisis, we have a social support crisis, because all of the community social service agencies – whether it’s [Centretown Community Health Centre] or our partners – are struggling to keep up with demand and are under-resourced – badly.

“We are the nation’s capital – we have the opportunity to show how we’re a compassionate, caring city, and we need to come together.”

Funding amounts will be confirmed when the provincial government releases its 2018 operating budget by April.

The Ottawa Police Service will bolster its front lines with 25 new officers in 2018, but it won’t be enough to keep pace with the demands of climbing gang violence and population rates, according to the president of the Police Association.

This year’s projected budget features a $12 million increase in frontline police operations, a 14 per cent rise from last year’s total, according to an analysis of city budget posted online. costs account for 82 percent of the force’s overall operating budget, and the hiring of the officers alone will amount to an estimated $2 million in additional frontline spending.

The new hires come at the end of a three-year staffing plan that will have seen a total of 75 new officers sworn in by the end of the year.

But according to Matt Skof, president of the Ottawa Police Association, these staff increases should be taken with a grain of salt.

“When [the city] says they’re adding 75 new officers … that’s misleading,” said Skof. “They’re really returning 75 new officers into the fold that they had already shrunk from the service.”

Between 2012 and 2015, the city tightened its belt on police deployment. Now, with demands on the force mounting, Skof claims the city is having to play catch-up. “By the end of 2018, we’ll be back to 2012 levels of staffing,” he said.

But things have changed since 2012. According to the latest census, the population in Ottawa has grown by nearly six per cent between 2011 to 2016. The 13 shootings in a vicious January have heightened concerns over gang-related gun violence.

To make matters more difficult, new policies have made the daily tasks of police officers more complicated. According to Skof, the time needed to complete calls has gone up exponentially since 2010. “What would have taken one or two hours is now taking four to eight hours,” said Skof. “So now we’re stretched even further.

Councillor Eli El-Chantiry, who chairs the police services board, was unavailable for an interview. In an emailed response, he pointed to programs included in the budget that were designed to take pressure off the front lines. One such program provides new Tasers for frontline officers (along with all-important training updates for their use). Another is the Direct Response Action Team (DART), which works to control Ottawa’s guns and gangs. The small unit will gain two of the 25 new officers this year.

Guns and gangs were the biggest issues on the table at Monday’s Police Services Board at City Hall. “The gun violence we have seen since the start of the year is our top priority,” said Chief Charles Bordeleau. On the weekend prior to the board meeting, frontline officers conducted more than 40 compliance checks and made 30 patrols of “problem addresses” linked to gang members, said Bordeleau.

Skof wants to see more of this preventative action, but is worried that resources are too thin to get ahead of gun violence on a regular basis. “To be proactive is one thing, but we’re not even being proactive. We’re reacting to gun crimes.”

Skof thinks a fundamental problem needs solving: budget limits need to be set with public safety in mind, instead of politics. Because fewer police calls were made, and crime rates decreased in recent years, the city could justify cutbacks, he said.

“That’s a myth, and again, it’s very misleading.

The violent Crime Severity Index went up by 15 per cent in Ottawa from 2015 to 2016. Nationwide, gang-related and shooting homicides have trended up in recent years.

Ottawa’s Budget 2018 provides more than $200 million to help City end homelessness by 2024

 The City of Ottawa is waging war on homelessness as the number of homeless Ottawa individuals and families continues to rise.

Through its Budget 2018, the City is providing an arsenal of $201.5 million to combat homelessness and boost supportive and affordable housing. This is a $3.8 million increase over 2017.

“It is an increase this year and everything helps,” says Marianne Wilkinson, Councillor for Kanata North and a former Chair of Ottawa Community Housing Corporation’s Board of Directors. “The City takes the issue of homelessness and the cost of housing to low-income residents very seriously.”

 As you read through Budget 2018 website’s Affordable housing and homelessness and Housing budget highlights, numbers leap off the page and come to life. It’s easy to envision a construction crew erecting the frame of a house, to smell the fresh scent of cedar boards and to hear the shrill sound of nails being hammered. All in support of the homeless.

 The City’s Community and Protective Services Department’s Operating Budget has, for example, earmarked $30 million from the Province of Ontario, over three years, for the Home for Good program. The goals are to create 150 supportive housing units and help 310 households find and maintain affordable housing.

A total of $14.4 million in federal and provincial funding will support the Investment in Affordable Housing program – a 48 percent surge from 2017. Also, a $760,000 increase over last year’s budget totals $26.3 million for housing and for homelessness agencies.

Budget 2018 supports Ottawa’s 10 Year Housing and Homelessness Plan to end local homelessness by 2024. The Plan is a long-term commitment to reduce shelter stays to under 30 days. A 40 percent savings in funding to emergency shelters is expected to result.

The City “is constantly working to add affordable housing, maintain existing affordable housing and ensure that services are available,” says Wilkinson.

The numbers tell the story. More than 10,000 Ottawa households are waiting for subsidized housing, according to the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa.

The alliance’s 2016 Progress Report points out that, across the city, some 22,000 households that rent spend more than one-half of their income on rent and utilities. These people are deemed to be at major risk of losing their homes.

The City’s housing shelters also represent stark statistics. In 2016, close to 7,200 people stayed at a local shelter, according to the alliance’s report. Overall, this number was up 5.2 per cent from 2015. However, the number of families that used a shelter soared by 12.5 per cent.

Ottawa’s Shepherds of Good Hope is one of nine organizations funded by the City’s Housing Services branch, that offer emergency shelter services and interim housing programs city-wide.

Founded in 1983, Shepherds of Good Hope provides 24/7, comprehensive services through its 254-bed shelter and five supportive living residences. Each night, the organization houses more than 450 men and women. Most of these people live with addictions, mental health challenges and trauma.

According to Lindy Rosko, Shepherds of Good Hope’s senior manager, Supportive Housing, Budget 2018 “provides a three percent increase to its per diems. This amounts to $1.53 per day.”

The funding increase is allocated for Shepherds of Good Hope’s three residential services programs. These housing programs support meals, housekeeping, and medication management. “People of low income require these supports in order to live independently.”

Rosko says the additional funding “allows us to keep up with cost of living increases, so that we can keep the level of service we currently provide.”

Looking ahead, Wilkinson says, “We need to continue to provide support and housing options. But what has been done in the last few years is helping and is a step forward.”

(Note: In-person interviews were not possible, as Councillor Wilkinson was travelling and Shepherds of Good Hope required longer lead time.)

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 Photo caption:

Kanata North Councillor Marianne Wilkinson is shown serving meals during the Salvation Army Ottawa Booth Centre’s Annual Community Christmas Dinner, held December 9, 2017.  (Credit: Salvation Army Area Director of Public Relations Glenn van Gulik)