Regional Councillor Report


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


Date: March 29, 2010



Regional Council – March 10, 2010


The motion to consider a by-law that would place the following question on the ballot of all lower tier municipalities for the October 25, 2010 election was approved 15 to 8. All Ajax Councillors voted in favour.


“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


An amendment to the ballot question motion was also endorsed that requested that staff report back by June 10, 2010, with an analysis of issues relating to direct election of the Chair. Some of these issues included campaign costs, campaign financing, potential introduction of party politics, and a review of current practices in Halton and Waterloo.


As stipulated in the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, as amended, Regional Council must now pass a by-law to submit the question to electors. A by-law to submit a question must be passed before April 28, 2010 (180 days prior to the election). The passing of this by-law is scheduled for the April 21, 2010 meeting of Regional Council. The Regional Clerk must give notice of the passage of the by-law to the public and the Minister of Municipal Affairs, within 15 days. Within 20 days after the Clerk gives notice, the Minister of Municipal Affairs or any other person or entity may file an appeal on the grounds that the question is not clear, concise and neutral and/or on the grounds that the question is not capable of being answered yes or no. On or before June 1, 2010, the Regional Clerk must transmit a copy of the by-law with the proposed question to Clerks of the lower tier municipalities. The lower tier Clerks are then required to place the question on each local ballot for the October 25, 2010 elections.


The results of the question are only binding if at least 50 percent of all eligible electors vote on the question and if 50 percent of those votes are in favour.


Although the results likely will not be binding (due to our unfortunate historical turnout rates of less than 50 percent), the newly elected Regional Council should be morally compelled to act if the 2010 question results are similar to the 2006 results when almost nine out of ten electors in Ajax, Pickering and Oshawa stated their desire to directly elect the Regional Chair. To do so, the Regional Council would be required to request that the Minister of Municipal Affairs enact a regulation granting the Region authority to change the method of selecting the Regional Chair via the “triple majority” process outlined as follows:






Region


If each of the triple majority requirements is achieved, the Regional Chair will be selected by general vote of all electors in the Region beginning with the 2014 election.




Health and Social Services – March 23, 2010


The Committee received a presentation from Richard Armstrong, Chief/Director, Durham Region Emergency Medical Services regarding the EMS 2009 Performance Summary. The statistics show that call volume has increased from 44,540 in 2000 to 84,564 calls in 2009. Ajax calls have increased from 4,221 in 2000 to 6,196 in 2009, which represents about 12.2 percent of the total calls.


The hospital offload delay continues to be an issue, which represents a cost of $683,884.31 (50/50 cost shared with the Province) in 2009, as vehicles and paramedics are waiting considerable lengths of time to offload patients at hospitals. Provincial funding in 2009, allowed a Dedicated Offload Nurse at Lakeridge to provide coverage four days per week. This allowed emergency personnel to gain 923.5 vehicle hours of coverage or 1,847 staffing hours, which ensures that they are available for emergency situations and can reduce response times. Durham EMS are now working on a similar agreement with Rouge Valley Ajax, which currently creates the largest offload issues.


Durham EMS partnered with Peel, York, Halton and Simcoe to review the current dispatch system utilized by MOHLTC compared to the new systems and technology utilized in Toronto and Niagara. Toronto and Niagara not only use newer technology but their dispatch is also under local control, whereas Durham and the other partners dispatch is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care who utilize an older system. Toronto and Niagara have reduced response times since transitioning to the new model. The review looked at governance and transition to municipal control, which would be a three to four year undertaking. The report has been forwarded to the Minister of Health for consideration.