The Committee recommends that:
1. Copies of the study titled "Profile of a Changing World - the 1996 Community Agency Survey" be forwarded to the appropriate federal and provincial ministers.
2. In considering funding applications from agencies in Metro Toronto, the federal and provincial governments be requested to pay special attention to the fact that the Toronto area has a higher-than-average number of refugees, recent immigrants and families living in poverty.
3. The Commissioner of Urban Development Services and the Commissioner of Community Services continue to monitor the status of community agencies in 1997.
4. The Transition Team and the new Megacity Council be requested to ensure that funding from the municipality for agencies within the current City of Toronto are maintained at least at current levels.
The Committee advises that it has requested the Commissioner of Urban Development Services, in consultation with the Commissioner of Community Services, to continue discussions with the United Way and report back to the Neighbourhoods Committee by its meeting on September 10, 1997, on the results of these discussions.
The Committee submits the report (May 28, 1997) from the Commissioner of Urban Development Services:
Origin: City Council, May 21, 1996 (Clause 15, Report #9, Neighbourhoods Committee) (p:\1997\ug\uds\pln\nh971178.pln)-nbb
Recommendation: That this report be received for information.
Comments:
Background:
Following Provincial funding cuts to the delivery of human services by community-based agencies, a partnership was established between the City’s Urban Development Services Department, Metro Toronto’s Community Services Department and the Social Planning Council of Metropolitan Toronto to track the impacts on the social service infrastructure by surveying these agencies. In May of 1996 I reported to City Council’s Neighbourhoods Committee on the results of a survey that documented the types of programs that agencies had cut and those population groups most affected by the loss of these social supports. City Council, at its meeting of May 21, 1996, requested that staff from Urban Development Services repeat this survey one year later, again in partnership with Metro staff and the Social Planning Council.
Findings of the 1996 Survey of Community-based human service agencies:
Attached is the Executive Summary of the report documenting the results of the survey conducted in the fall of 1996. A questionnaire was mailed to 1,678 community-based human service agencies across Metropolitan Toronto. The mailing list was compiled from the Community Information Centre (CIC) of Metropolitan Toronto, the Metro Toronto District Health Council and the United Way of Greater Toronto. An overall response rate of 30% was achieved as data were collected from 504 agencies about the 1,026 programs and services they provide.
Licensed not-for-profit childcare centres account for 122 of agency responses, representing 17% of the supply of childcare services (727 licensed centres were mailed questionnaires). The responses from the childcare sector have not been included here, but will be reported on at a later date.
The 382 responses received from other agencies represent 40% of the broader community-based social service sector (951 such agencies were mailed questionnaires). It is these agencies, and the 873 programs that they deliver to their communities, that are the subject of this report. Approximately 41% of all agencies that responded to this year’s survey also responded to the first survey reported on last year. The detailed report on the survey occasionally comments on this "control group" in an effort to track specific responses to challenges that were identified last year.
Unlike an opinion poll of the general population, the results documented in the attached report are difficult to extrapolate to the full universe of programs across Metro. What the report does document is the increasing level of uncertainty that some of these community-based agencies face.
It is notable that in both 1995 and 1996 there was a 4-in-10 likelihood that any agency contacted had cancelled a program that year.
It is also notable that 33 agencies closed outright during 1996. This number of agency failures is up from the 21 closures in 1995, and is much higher than the average of 7 closures per year observed during the early 1990s.
It is most interesting to note that, following the loss of 162 programs during 1995, a further 151 local human service programs were lost during 1996. In both years, two of the groups that were most likely to feel the brunt of these losses were immigrants and refugees and low-income families or individuals. They are also identified in this survey as the two groups most likely to be affected by cuts during the coming year.
- The City is a magnet for new immigrants. Since 1990, national immigration levels have consistently surpassed 200,000 per year: and each year about 30% of these newcomers settle in Toronto, York, East York, Scarborough, Etobicoke or North York. While immigration policy is a federal government responsibility, the vitality of Canada’s cities reflects the many faces of those who choose to start a new life in Canada. Community supports like settlement programs, skills training and literacy education are defining elements of the quality of life newcomers can expect in metropolitan Toronto.
- On top of the 20 programs in immigrant and settlement agencies cancelled in 1995, 18 programs serving immigrants and refugees were cancelled during 1996. Six of these were settlement programs, six focussed on skills training and 2 delivered education and literacy skills. In addition, 11 programs serving this segment of the population face possible cancellation during 1997, while 34 could see a reduction in hours of service.
- Poverty also exists in our cities. Increasingly, low-income families or individuals must rely on income supports such as General Welfare Assistance or the Family Benefits Assistance program; the concept of the "working poor" that could have described certain Toronto neighbourhoods in the past is becoming a part of history. Employment prospects remain bleak, even though the economy has been in "recovery" for some time. The 22% rollback of welfare entitlements introduced by the Provincial government in 1995 had a tremendous impact on welfare recipients and on the City (as it removed $97 million annually from local spending on retail and personal services).
- Community-based programs that help these families cope now have also come under considerable pressure; 14 were cancelled during 1996 including programs in counselling, hotlines, drop-ins, and food and clothing programs. A further 8 programs face cancellation during 1997 while 28 could see their hours of service cut back.
There were program additions during the past year; 168 programs were added. While outnumbering cancellations overall, it is interesting that the program additions do not seem to be serving the population groups most affected by program cuts. Seniors were most likely to benefit from new programs as 18 new services appeared in 1996, while only 4 were cut. New services, in general, were concentrated in outreach/support services, health and rehabilitation, skills training, and food and clothing. One explanation for the addition of programs for seniors and specifically for programs in outreach/support and health and rehabilitation could be that over the two year period of 1995-97 the Ministry of Health Long Term Care Branch (Metro Toronto) has provided $25 million in funding for Home Care in-home services and $3 million to a seniors Alzheimer respite program in addition to outreach services for people with physical disabilities.
Overall, the survey revealed that there was a net loss in the number of programs offered by agencies with 40 or fewer staff, while there was a net gain in the number of programs offered by agencies with more than 40 staff. While, in total, new programs outnumbered cancellations during 1996, there are differential impacts for various population groups that do not seem to reflect differences in need. How and where new service programs are started is something to watch for as program dollars are expected to flow to community-based agencies as the health and long-term care fields are restructured. This is evident by the observation that program expansions are likely to occur in homecare and health and rehabilitation; and that seniors (70 responses) and persons with physical disabilities (58 responses) are most likely to benefit from program expansion.
While it is encouraging to see some signs of anticipated program expansion, there are two areas of uncertainty which warrant monitoring:
- Will the infusion of funding to facilitate the shift from institutional to community-based service delivery in health and long-term care be sufficient to meet the demand generated by both de-institutionalization and that generated by an aging population?
- How will governments address the continued reduction in program supports for immigrants and low-income families and individuals?
Conclusion:
For the second year, now, survey results have shown that changing funding priorities on the part of federal and provincial governments have contributed to cancellations and reductions in the community-based infrastructure of social support available to residents across Metropolitan Toronto. The irony that emerges is that spending reductions in other service areas such as health care, social housing, and welfare entitlements, increase the demand for the services that agencies are being forced to cut. For agencies that responded to this survey, even a seemingly small cut in Provincial funding ($10 million out of $220 million total given to a small number of agencies.) can significantly harm the social infrastructure of our communities. The stability of municipal grants and United Way funding are increasingly critical to the ability of agencies to meet the growing needs of the communities they serve.
The Committee also had before it the following material which is included in the additional material and is on file with the City Clerk:
- Executive Summary appended to the report titled "Profile of a Changing World - 1996 Community Agency Survey"
- communication (undated) from Councillor Maxwell
(Copies of the report tiled "Profile of a Changing World - 1996 Community Agency Survey" have been distributed to Members of Council and a copy is on file with the City Clerk).
