Staff
An amendment that would have seen $11,350 added to the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board’s 2011-12 budget was defeated at a special meeting Friday.
Although the board had passed its budget March 18, alterations to the budget during this meeting saw certain items under the social housing portion inadvertently removed along with other items the board wanted to cut.
It was “very easy to make a mistake in this budget,” La Vallee Reeve Ross Donaldson noted during Friday’s special meeting to amend the original budget of $15,463,816, pointing to the way the budget was being altered and changed throughout the March 18 meeting until a vote was held.
The proposed amendment would have seen $11,350 added to the social housing budget for furniture, cabinet refinishing/countertops, storm doors, ceiling tiles, tub surrounds, cellphones, and legal costs.
This additional amount would have been shouldered by municipalities with a 0.24 percent increase in the levy, alongside the average 2.64 percent increase that already had been approved.
When “uploading” of the Ontario Drug Benefit Program is taken into account, the amendment would have seen a decrease of $207,747 (4.4 percent) instead of the originally-approved $219,097 decrease (4.64 percent)
While a majority of DSSAB rep voted in favour of the amendment, there were not enough votes to surpass the two-thirds needed for it to be approved.
