Regional Councillor Report

Submitted by: Colleen Jordan, Regional Councillor Wards 3 & 4

Date: February 22, 2010

Durham Region Council – Feb. 17, 2010

Regional Budget – 2010

Regional Council approved the budget which incorporated 22 new staff positions, including the Privacy Officer for the Health Department, as well as 18 new staff for social services in order to accommodate the escalating caseload in social services. The caseload is predicted to increase by 9.5 percent. Should the caseload increase beyond this, the tax rate stabilization fund will have to be used to fund the increase. A recent report from social services indicates that in the previous recession caseload increased for 21 months after the official end of the recession. In order to receive social services benefits recipients must exhaust all their assets. It is evident that the strict criteria which prevents many workers from accessing EI is having dire effects on unemployed residents as well as impacting the Regional budget.

The approved budget represents a tax rate increase of 2.15 percent ($47) on the Region wide average residential assessment. The impact to Ajax has been estimated at 2.26 percent or $50 on the average residential assessment.

The budget did not include provisions for implementing better transit service in Ajax which has been highlighted as a priority need and is becoming a crisis situation. Without the enhancements to transit, buses are having difficulty meeting GO train schedules. The budget did provide an allocation of $500,000 for capital expansion at the Durham College Whitby Campus. This is a seven year commitment totaling $5 million.

For reasons of the uncertainty and budget pressures from the increasing burden for Ontario Works caseload and the need for improved public transit in Ajax (which are Regional core responsibilities), Councillor Jordan opposed the budget’s allocation of $500,000 and the future funds committed to the College, and therefore voted against the budget.

Notice of Motion

The following Notice of Motion has been placed on the Regional Council agenda for debate at the March 10, 2010 meeting. This motion has been endorsed by Pickering Council. I would request that the motion be endorsed and, once approved, the Town communicate that endorsement through their communication channels.

NOTICE OF MOTION FOR DURHAM REGION COUNCIL

DIRECT ELECTION OF REGIONAL CHAIR

WHEREAS, the Municipal Act, 2001, as amended, states that the head of an upper-tier municipality “shall be elected by general vote, in accordance with the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, or shall be appointed by the members of council”; and

WHEREAS electors in the Regional Municipalities of Halton and Waterloo are able to choose their Regional Chair by general vote; and

WHEREAS the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, states that the council of a municipality may pass a by-law to submit to its electors a question not otherwise authorized by law but within the council’s jurisdiction; and

WHEREAS the November 2006 ballots in the Town of Ajax and the Cities of Pickering and Oshawa each contained a question asking electors if they wished their local councils to approve a resolution to request that the Government of Ontario make a regulation requiring that the method of selecting the Chair of the Regional Municipality of Durham be changed to election by general vote; and

WHEREAS 1electors responded to the ballot question as follows:

AND WHEREAS the 2006 ballot question results indicate overwhelming public support for changing the method of selecting the Regional Chair to election by general vote; and

WHEREAS determining the method of electing the Regional Chair rightfully belongs to all of the electors within the Region;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Council consider passing a by-law to submit the following question to electors in all lower-tier municipalities in the Regional Municipality of Durham on the October 25, 2010 regular election ballot:

“Are you in favour of the Council of The Regional Municipality of Durham passing the necessary resolutions and by-laws to change the method of selecting its Chair from appointment by the members of Regional Council to election by general vote of all electors in the Region.”

YES NO

AND that the Regional Clerk and Solicitor undertake all measures required and necessary to give effect to this resolution.