Duane Hicks
Starting in 2008, the province began uploading various programs it previously had downloaded to the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board, reducing some of the DSSAB’s program costs and, theoretically, the levy amount district municipalities should have to pay.
But the Town of Fort Frances feels it and other district municipalities have not been getting the full benefit of the uploading—and is asking the province for answers.
According to information contained in the 2011 Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) allocation notice Fort Frances received, the town says it should be realizing $420,400 in savings from uploaded programs, including a Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) of $57,900, Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) administration component ($48,500), ODSP benefits component ($307,700), and Ontario Works benefits ($6,300).
Based on the 2011 allocation notices for other district municipalities, the total 2011 uploaded savings for Rainy River District should be more than $887,200 (this total does not include the Town of Rainy River, which had not received its 2011 OMPF notice as of Monday).
However, the DSSAB has indicated the total uploaded savings for the entire district this year is only $448,238. It says the town is misinterpreting the numbers.
Coun. Ken Perry, who is the Fort Frances rep on the DSSAB board, said the allocation notices are “pretty straightforward” and he can’t understand where DSSAB’s administration is coming from.
“[The OMPF allocation notice] tells you what is there, and they’ve interpreted them a different way and I have no idea why,” Coun. Perry noted in an interview Monday.
“The numbers are the numbers and I have presented them at board meetings, I have presented them to other board members, and they’ve been convinced by the DSSAB administration that the numbers that we got from the province aren’t really correct,” he added.
“I don’t know what else I can say.
“This is driving me crazy,” Coun. Perry admitted. “I go to a meeting. ‘Show me some other numbers,’ that’s what I said.
“‘Show me some other numbers on government stationery that says we’ve made a mistake, that’s not what you’re getting for 2011.’”
But Leanne Eluik, the manager of finance for DSSAB, said the $448,238 total for the district is correct—and she was told this by Frank Malvaso, regional program manager with the Ministry of Community and Social Services.
When asked how the town’s numbers and DSSAB numbers could be so different, Eluik explained there seems to be a misunderstanding with how numbers are presented on the OMPF allocation notice.
The $420,400 figure to which the town refers is indicated in their 2011 allocation notice, but that figure indicates Fort Frances’ total accumulated uploaded savings stemming back to 2008, not its share for 2011 only.
Eluik noted where the allocation notice lists the estimated total benefit of 2011 provincial uploads for the town, the figures provided include benefits already realized by the town.
In other words, the figures include uploaded savings from past years combined with estimated savings for this year.
For example, while the 2011 notice lists the ODB and ODSP (administration component) and their corresponding savings amounts as being part of the total upload savings for 2011, these two benefits already were uploaded in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and so their totals should not be included in the 2011 savings, Eluik explained.
Likewise, the ODSP benefits component and Ontario Works uploads began in 2010, and the savings totals listed for each of these in 2011 is cumulative with last year’s numbers.
For example, the ODSP benefits component amount of $307,700 does not reflect the savings for this year alone, but the combined savings of both 2010 and 2011.
The town’s actual savings for 2011 is a percentage of the $448,238 based on the DSSAB apportionment formula, which should equal about $157,000 (i.e., 35 percent of $448,238).
However, Eluik noted the $448,238 in savings is based on a zero percent levy increase to the 2011 DSSAB budget—and that budget has not been finalized yet.
Coun. Perry disagreed, saying the figures on the allocation notice are exactly as they appear. And from his understanding, municipalities should keep benefiting from uploaded programs each and every year after the uploading kicks in.
“Once it’s uploaded, it’s uploaded,” he argued. “If they gave us $59,000 from the Ontario Drug Benefit back in 2008, they gave it to us in 2009, they gave it to us in 2010, and they’re going to give it to us in 2011.
“It’s going to continue forever until the government decides not to fund the Ontario Drug Benefit program.”
Citing another example, Coun, Perry said court security costs will begin to be uploaded in 2012, and fully uploaded by 2018.
“What the DSSAB board is telling me is in 2019, you’re not going to get any money for that upload, and I am saying, ‘No, in 2019, the government will again pay for our court officer at the courthouse, as they are paying for certain programs at the DSSAB right now,” he explained.
“It doesn’t get cut off year by year, it’s added to year by year,” Coun. Perry stressed.
La Vallee Reeve Ross Donaldson, who chairs the DSSAB chair, said that speaking as chair of the board, all the board has agreed on at this point “is that all municipalities want the benefit of the upload.”
But speaking as the reeve of La Vallee Township, he agrees with Fort Frances’ figures.
“I think they’re correct,” he remarked. “What they’ve said the benefit is for La Vallee is correct, in my opinion.”
Reeve Donaldson added the DSSAB board “hasn’t got into the figures completely at this point,” but it will discuss the matter further at a budget meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
“But for now, I have to support the board, and basically the only decision the board’s made is that we want some benefit from the uploading,” he said.
The town has written letters to the province to obtain information on the amount that is to be credited in 2011 to Rainy River District municipalities as a result of the uploading of social assistance benefit program costs.
The town has sent a letter to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (Thunder Bay Service office) asking the following questions:
•How does the Social Assistance Benefit Provincial Uploads affect the OMPF calculations?
•How does the Social Assistance Benefit Provincial Uploads affect the actual OMPF funding that individual municipalities receive (does it reflect the actual dollars that municipalities otherwise would get directly from the province by way of the OMPF)?
•What was the province’s intended or expected benefits directly for municipalities resulting from the Provincial Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review and the phased-in social assistance uploads? Was it the province’s expectations that municipal levies for local DSSABs would be reduced by the annual uploaded amount?
•Are the annual Social Assistance Benefit program upload estimates reconciled on an annual basis?
•What is the total 2011 provincial upload for Rainy River District municipalities in relation to the following: Ontario Drug Benefits, Ontario Disability Support Program (benefits and administration components), and Ontario Works (benefits component)?
A second letter was sent to the Ministry of Community and Social Services asking:
•How does the Social Assistance Benefit Provincial Uploads affect the OMPF calculations?
•How will the Ontario court security upload be handled in 2012?
While the town still needs answers, treasurer Laurie Witherspoon said Friday that Grant Erickson, program supervisor with the Ministry of Community and Social Services, confirmed verbally that they have the same numbers as was reported on the town’s 2011 OMPF allocation notice.
The province began uploading programs it previously had downloaded onto the DSSAB starting in 2008. In simplest terms, this means the province won’t be billing the DSSAB for these programs and DSSAB, in turn, won’t bill the municipalities, which had paid for them as part of the levy they pay to DSSAB each year.
In 2008, the Ontario Drug Benefit program was uploaded 100 percent. In 2009, ODSP (administration) was uploaded 50 percent.
In 2010, ODSP (benefits) was uploaded 50 percent and Ontario Works (benefits) three percent.
In 2011, ODSP (benefits) will jump to 100 percent while Ontario Works (benefits) will rise to six percent.
In 2012, the uploading of Ontario Works will increase while the uploading of court security will begin at 14 percent and increase thereafter through to 2018 (the town currently pays for police officers to provide court security).
According to the province, Ontario municipalities will see a net benefit of $1.5 billion a year by 2018.
