The County of Simcoe has received more funding from the province and federal government for social services ranging from homelessness to food banks.
That was part of the county council highlights that Mayor George Cornell shared with the rest of Tiny Township council at this week's committee of the whole meeting.
“The county is actively engaged with the shelters in the county and identifying what their needs are and how that money will be spent,”said Cornell, who is also county warden.
“Some of those funds will be used to house homeless folks at motels. That’s already started to happen. We will also be looking at womens’ and childrens’ shelters and what support they need. We will also be looking at food banks.”
As well, he said, municipal representatives also talked about property tax relief.
“Council voted in support of a proportional submission of the county portion of taxes, so there's no undue pressure on lower-tier municipalities,” said Cornell, who added that the county has agreed to defer its taxes in line with municipal deferrals.
County council had reconvened for its first virtual meeting earlier this week after taking time to figure out how to gather during pandemic times.
“I think it went very well,” said Cornell. “It was a bit of a lengthy session; it had been a while since we met. We went five hours without a break. We had a lot of material we needed to discuss and advance.”
Deputy Mayor Steffen Walma added that the county passed a support letter addressing the request made by the Town of New Tecumseh, asking for a countywide ban on single-use plastics.
“The county was looking at that, but it got sidetracked because of COVID,” said Cornell. “We will certainly get back on track for that with this reminder from the Town of New Tecumseh.”
Walma then provided an update from his meetings with the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, addressing the most recent announcements around agriculture.
“A lot of our farmers were having staffing problems, migrant workers being one piece of that,” he said. “The federal government just recently announced support to the tune of $50 million dollars to fund farmers, fish harvesters, food production and processing employers to put in place the measures necessary to follow a mandatory 14-isolation period required of all workers arriving from abroad.”
Walma noted that effective and efficient implementation of these measures will be monitored by the employer.
As well, he said government support could include salary offsets and accommodations for isolation of up to $1,500.
“They are listening to the needs of our local farming community,” Walma said. “And they’re putting supports in place.”