What is a District Social Services Administration Board?

Municipalities across the province are being told to team up and submit proposals for District Social Services Administration Boards to administer Ontario Works, child care, and social housing in their geographic areas by March 31.
Public health and land ambulance are optional services the DSSAB can administer.
Aime Dimatteo, director for the Northern Services Implementation Project, said all proposals will be reviewed and approved by May 31, with areas to get their DSSABs up and running as soon as possible after that.
Those proposals must include agreement from the unincorporated and incorporated residents on the geographic area, governance and representation, and cost apportionment.
“Failing unanimous consent, weighted assessment will be the cost apportionment used,” Dimatteo said Monday from Sudbury, stressing if a local agreement couldn’t be reached by March 31, the province would dictate what the DSSAB would look like.
“That’s why double majority has got to apply.”
And it is mandatory that the affected services be delivered to the unincorporated areas.
For 1998, the province will continue payment for the unincorporated residents as it waits for the equalized assessment to be completed. The province still is looking at what the tax model for that will be.
But starting in 1999, the province will bill unincorporated residents the levy that is set by the DSSAB–the same levy that is billed to incorporated residents.
“The DSSAB does not have direct taxing authority,” Dimatteo said in explaining the province’s involvement.
That’s the big difference between the DSSAB legislation, which already passed under the Ministry of Community and Social Services, and the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines’ proposed Area Services Board legislation, which only made it to first reading before the Legislature was prorogued before Christmas.
As well, ASB is optional legislation and for Northern Ontario only, Dimatteo noted, with southern Ontario not having any unincorporated area.
DSSABs are mandatory across the province.
If the ASB legislation ever does pass, six services would be mandatory–Ontario Works, child care, social housing, land ambulance, public health, and homes for the aged.
There also would be optional services, such as roads, economic development, and policing, which would be decided at the local level.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Community and Social Services has set aside “limited funding” for those working on a DSSAB proposal.
The deadline for that application is this Friday, with groups to estimate how much it will cost them to put a DSSAB in place.