The city is being asked to pay the County of Simcoe $9.68 million for its services in 2024, a 10.68 per cent increase over Orillia’s 2023 contribution.
The ask is the largest increase from outside agencies in the city’s draft budget, which projects a 1.97 per cent tax increase in the new year. Monday’s story about the overall budget can be read here.
County representatives were at a city budget meeting at the Orillia Opera House on Tuesday to explain the request.
They explained how the county provides a variety of services to its municipalities, including long-term care, social housing, paramedic services, Ontario Works, child and community services, and more.
“I am going to say here we’re actually not asking for an increase in money,” said Simcoe County Warden Basil Clarke. “What we’re looking for is the cost to run the services, per capita, that we run through all of Simcoe County.”
Among the larger increases to Orillia’s 2024 contribution are paramedic services, for which the city will pay more than $1.8 million for the year — a $299,000 increase over 2023.
Part of the reason for the increase is the hiring of six new paramedics, two platoon supervisors, and a project co-ordinator in addition to a new collective bargaining agreement.
“In 2023, we had a new collective bargaining agreement and that included not only COLA (cost-of-living adjustment), but market adjustment in 2023 as well as 2024,” said Jane Sinclair, the county’s general manager of health and emergency services.
The city is also seeing a $432,000 hike to help fund the county’s capital projects, up to $2.68 million for 2024, ranging from affordable housing projects carried out locally and beyond to long-term care home additions and improvements to paramedic services throughout the county.
At the meeting, Mayor Don McIsaac questioned whether the hike in funding would correlate to an equal improvement in services locally.
“Certainly, Orillia wants to be able to help as able, (but) we don’t want to continue being the bank for the rest of the county,” he said. “If we could relate the increases to a level of service increase, that’s one thing, but … I’m struggling. I don’t see a population increase of 11 per cent. I don’t see service increases commensurate with that number.”
During their presentation, county officials pointedd out instances where Orillia receives a proportion of services higher than what it funds.
“Simcoe County community housing has 1,600 units, and nine per cent of those units are here in Orillia … so for the 5.1 per cent you contribute, you get 9.1 per cent of the (units),” said Mina Fayez-Bahgat, the county’s general manager of social and community services.
Once the 130-unit Simcoe County hub opens on West Street North, Fayez-Bahgat said, Orillia will have 15 per cent of the county’s affordable housing units.
Numerous areas of service have gone up due to “inflationary cost pressures” as well, said Trevor Wilcox, the county’s general manager of corporate performance.
With more than 4,100 affordable housing units across the county, and funding for various projects — including support for initiatives like warming centres — Coun. Tim Lauer questioned how well the issue of homelessness is being addressed.
“If you were to put us on a curve, is this issue still on the rise? Have we crested? Are we starting to find solutions?” he asked.
Fayez-Bahgat said homelessness is on the rise in Simcoe County but added the area experiences less homelessness than comparable places like London, Waterloo and other larger centres.
“The visibility of homelessness and overall people experiencing homelessness is on the rise here at the County of Simcoe,” he said, noting a count in 2021 found 700 people experiencing homelessness on a single day.
“I anticipate that number will come back down a little bit because of the considerable investments being made again into homelessness. We’re introducing a $1,000 subsidy that has never been introduced before. We’ve intensified shelter programming, outreach programs, supportive housing programming, and we’re opening up more units in 2024 with two buildings.”
Numerous councillors asked about homelessness at the meeting, with Coun. Janet-Lynne Durnford asking about county plans for “rapid rehousing” projects that bring people off the streets quickly.
“Could you speak a little bit about that model — how many people it will serve? And there’s been a lot of talk and press around the idea of managed encampments and how the model that you are proposing to bring really is different from that idea for managed encampments,” she said.
Fayez-Bahgat mentioned the Rose Street rapid re-housing project in Barrie, which housed 21 chronic shelter residents, 20 of whom were permanently housed through the program.
The program used a portable structure that can be moved if needed.
“That portable facility on Rose Street sheltered up to 50 people during the winter … and in the summer, we came together with all the providers and said, ‘Well, what do you want to do in the summer with it?’ So, they decided on our rapid rehousing program,” he said.
“We’re looking to purchase three facilities of similar size, so the capacity could be upwards of 50 as a shelter program, or 25 as a rapid re-housing program may be smaller. We know that really is one of those locations just because that’s what the data is pointing at.”
Budget deliberations continue Wednesday, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Orillia Opera House.
Check back throughout the next few days for more budget coverage on OrilliaMatters.
