jillumbach General Information, Partner Activities, Upcoming Events

Welcoming Communities Forum 2 coming up on Nov 8

7 October 2013
The May Welcoming Communities Forum was a great success, and thanks again to everyone who made it happen.
Over the summer Joan and Colleen have continued to research and follow up on the recommendations from the May Forum:

·      Contact with Citizenship and Immigration Canada to discuss potential funding, Pathways to Prosperity, an alliance of university, community, and government partners dedicated to fostering welcoming communities and promoting the integration of immigrants and minorities across Canada and with the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.

·      Contact with Renfrew County, Simcoe County and North Bay about their Local Immigration Partnership programs and what we can learn from them.

·      Contact with the Guelph Local Immigration Partnership program and Alex Goss.

·      The City of Owen Sound Economic Development Committee has developed a Welcoming Communities strategy and will be attending a trade fair in Toronto.

·      Meeting with Bert Loopstra, Chamber of Commerce to discuss this initiative’s importance for the business sector, and opportunities for work together.

·      Presentations to Grey and Bruce County Economic Development Committees and to Bluewater Board of Education are planned for the fall.

The most important follow up item was to provide information on what other communities like ours have done to build Welcoming Communities.  We are very pleases that with the support of the City of Owen Sound, we able to bring speakers from North Bay, Simcoe and Renfrew – Lanack to present on the experiences, challenges and successes that their Welcoming Communities Initiatives have made over the past three years.
We invite you, and community stakeholders to attend Welcoming Communities Forum 2 on November 8, 2013 at the Shoreline Room, Harry Lumley Bayshore Arena from 9:00 – 12:00 noon. 
There is no charge and all are welcome.
Attached is a flyer and an agenda for the Forum.  Flyer Forum 2
Please feel free to distribute this to people who are interested in building a Welcoming Community in Grey and Bruce.
If you have any questions, please contact Joan Irvine:  irvine@bmts.com or Colleen Purdon:cpurdon@bmts.com
jillumbach General Information

New critic roles for MPPs Walker, Thompson

Monday, September 30, 2013 10:49:18 EDT AM

Local MPPs Bill Walker and Lisa Thompson have been given new roles in Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak’s shadow cabinet.

Walker, Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound’s PC MPP, is now critic for children and youth services. Thompson, Huron-Bruce’s PC MPP, takes on the critic role for small business, red tape and the Green Energy Act.

Meanwhile, veteran Simcoe-Grey PC MPP Jim Wilson stays on as the official opposition’s house leader.

Hudak, who survived a leadership challenge earlier this month, announced a major shuffle of his shadow cabinet Monday. A provincial election is expected as early as next spring.

Prior to the shuffle, Walker had served as deputy health critic for rural and northern Ontario, while Thompson had been deputy energy critic with a focus on the controversial Green Energy Act.

jillumbach General Information, Media

40% of us work past retirement age: StatsCan

By Daniel Proussalidis, Parliamentary Bureau

Wednesday, September 11, 2013 5:07:22 EDT PM

OTTAWA — Taking from the richer and giving to the poorer is alive and well in Canada, according to the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS).

The NHS, which replaced Statistics Canada’s mandatory long-form census, found that the richest 10% of Canadians paid about 42% of all income tax collected.

Alison Hale, Stats Canada’s director of income statistics, says that’s not surprising.

“That’s how the income tax system is designed,” said Hale.

The machinery of government plays Robin Hood with that money through various benefit programs.

That means the poorest 20% of Canadians get more than half their income from government pension plans, Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplements, Employment Insurance benefits, welfare payments or child benefit programs.

Hale suggests people may find that finding “reassuring.”

“There’s a perception that transfers should be going to people in need,” she said.

The groups most dependent on government transfers, said Hale, are seniors and single women raising children under six.

Residents of some of the Atlantic provinces were the most dependent on government transfers for their income.

“In three provinces — Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick — the total in transfers received was slightly more than the taxes they paid,” said the NHS.

In all other provinces and territories residents paid more in income tax than they got back from government programs.

“As a percentage of total income, Alberta was the only province whose taxes exceeded transfers by more than 10 percentage points,” said the NHS.

The data also shows that while seven in 10 Canadians get some kind of government transfer, only 13% depend exclusively on those transfers for their income.

For the most part, Canadians don’t depend on their fellow taxpayer for their income.

The NHS found that almost 88% of Canadians’ incomes come from private sources.

“Obviously, we’re a nation of workers,” said Hale.

In fact, many Canadians are working into their golden years to supplement their income.

Most still retire at 65 when their state pension benefits become available, but the NHS still found that “at age 66, about four in 10 still had employment income.”

That gradually declines as workers age, however.

“By the age of 74, employment income accounted for less than 10% of total income,” said the NHS.

The 2011 NHS shows the average income of Canadians is $38,700.

Hale says it’s difficult to compare that with the figure from the 2006 census because of different methodologies used.

jillumbach General Information, Media

Millions being poured into community health care

By Tracey Richardson, Sun Times, Owen Sound

Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:19:39 EDT PM

GREY-BRUCE – The province is making good on its word to put more resources into community-based health care to the tune of about $28 million for the South West LHIN.

The funding will translate into a 5% increase in base funding every year for programs like Home First, which connects elderly people admitted to hospital with 24 hour in-home support upon discharge, the new Southwestern Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre in Owen Sound, adult day programs and the Canadian Mental Health Association. Most of the new spending targets seniors and others with complex health needs, including those living with serious mental health issues and addictions. The ultimate goal of beefing up the programs is to cut down on hospital stays and ER visits by supporting people at home.

“This is brand new funding coming into the system,” said Michael Barrett, CEO of the South West LHIN. The LHIN board discussed the new money at its monthly board meeting Wednesday, which was held in Lion’s Head.

Almost $21 million will go into annual base funding and another $7.4 million is for one-time funding.

The government has made it clear, Barrett said, that any increased health care spending will go into the community and not hospitals. Most hospitals are no longer given an increase in annual funding, although small hospitals still get a 1% annual increase.

The intentional shift, Barrett said, “is to ensure people get care where they want it, and people want their care at home. We have fine hospitals within the South West LHIN that provide good acute care, but people do want to be at home, and this funding allows them to get that through additional home care supports.”

The Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) is the biggest single recipient of the new funding. More than $5 million alone will go the CCAC every year now to cut the wait time for personal support services for people with complex needs down to five days.

“We want to make sure that the CCAC has the ability to continue to deliver on their responsibilities, one of which is ensuring a five-day wait time for home care,” Barrett said.

The South West CCAC serves about 60,000 clients each year, with about 91% of those leaving hospital getting their first home visit within five days. The new funding is expected to improve that number.

The LHIN is also directing one-time funding to some of the following:

– 150 more knee replacements and 2,000 more hours of MRI scans.

– Improving Healthline (www.southwesthealthline.ca).

– adult day programs for the brain injured.

– exercise and falls prevention classes and other falls prevention initiatives.

In response to a question from a LHIN board member about the wage discrepancies in community based care — much it is provided by personal services workers and some of it by volunteers — Barrett said the government recognizes the discrepancy but that there is no current plan to address it.