OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER MEMO

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1 OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER 789 Broadway Street, Box 3000 Wyoming, ON N0N 1T0 Telephone: Toll-free: Fax: DATE: September 13, 2007 MEMO TO: FROM: RE: County Council Ronald G. Van Horne, Chief Administrative Officer Revenue Enhancements/Cost Reductions On March 29, 2007, County Council met to consider the draft 2007 County Budget. During the course of their deliberations, they adopted the following motion: That staff look at their existing services including the Core Services Reports for further savings of 1.25 million dollars and report back their recommendations for the 2008 budget process. Accordingly, attached as Schedule A to this report is a list of items prepared by staff for the consideration of County Council. Prior to reviewing the areas for potential savings, Council will note that there have been several changes in provincial funding which will have a significant, positive impact on the budget for The details with respect to such changes are set out under Part A Revenue Enhancements. Revenue Enhancements for next year total 1,355, million dollars. Part B contains a list of potential Cost Reductions for Council s consideration. The items listed under Cost Reductions may loosely be broken down under three headings: (a) Items recommended by staff for consideration by Council; (b) Items recommended by staff for further investigation; (c) Items not recommended by staff for implementation. All areas directly managed by staff have been examined. Budget areas which are set directly by Council have not been considered by staff. They include areas such as (a) County Council, and (b) County Grants. Caring Growing Innovative 1

2 The costs associated with (a) County Council include such matters as conferences, Councillor remuneration, the Warden s vehicle, and the cost of preparing the Committee and Council packages. With respect to (b) County Grants, although Council has recently adopted a policy which addresses the procedures to be followed when requesting grants, they have yet to determine the criteria to be applied in determining grants. RGV/sc Caring Growing Innovative 2

3 Schedule A PART A. REVENUE ENHANCEMENTS: 1. Ontario Child Benefit $596,600 (cumul.) The 2007 Provincial Budget announced the creation of a new Ontario Child Benefit to help Ontario families with lower incomes provide for their children. The benefit is targeted to families with children under the age of 18, including those on social assistance. The Ontario Child Benefit (OCB) will be phased in over 5 years, beginning with a one-time payment of up to $ per child in July 2007 growing to a maximum of $1, per child annually by Monthly OCB client payments are expected to begin in July 2008 at which time, social assistance benefits and the Ontario Child Care Supplement will be restructured and no portion of the National Child Benefit Supplement (NCBS) will be deducted from social assistance. Families on social assistance will continue to receive shelter allowances, health and dental benefits and child supports for their children. Beginning with the July 2008 payment, basic needs for children, the backto-school and winter clothing allowances, and the Ontario Child Care Supplement will be consolidated within the Ontario Child Benefit. Sole support parents will receive a supplement under social assistance which will be partially replaced by a gradually maturing Ontario Child Benefit. This supplement will help ensure that sole support families are better off with the introduction of the Ontario Child Benefit. Social assistance benefits are cost-shared 80:20 between the province and municipalities. The OCB will be fully funded by the province and municipalities will not be required to cost-share this benefit. Overall social assistance expenditures are expected to decline as a result of specific childrelated social assistance payments being consolidated into the OCB (basic needs, winter clothing, and back- to-school). The province is estimating that this restructuring will result in province-wide municipal cost savings of $8 million in This estimate is based on a projection of $48 million in social assistance savings less the current $40 million in NCBS reinvestment dollars. At maturity in , the province is estimating that there will be municipal cost savings of about $15 million. The province has not released information on the restructured social assistance rates, nor have they provided individual CMSM cost savings projections. Without this information, the local financial impact is difficult to predict with any degree of certainty. A rough projection may be made based on the savings represented by the local caseload as a percentage of the total provincial caseload. Caring Growing Innovative 3

4 Lambton County has 0.98% of the provincial OW/ODSP caseload based on March 2007 caseload numbers. A simple, straight percentage rate calculation would suggest local savings of $65,400 for the period July 2008 through March 2009; or $43,600 during the 2008 budget year (6 months savings). Total $596, $43, $87, $98, $110, $122, $134,000 At maturity, in the local savings would increase to $134,000 annualized. 2. Ontario Disability Support Plan (ODSP) and Ontario Drug Benefit Plan Uploading $7,426,426 (cumul.) The Provincial Government has announced as part of its Provincial- Municipal Fiscal and Service Delivery Review that it will phase-in over four years the assumption of the municipal cost associated with Ontario Disability Support Plan (ODSP) and Ontario Drug Benefit Plan. Staff has now confirmed with Ministry Officials the implementation strategy. Different from the initial assumption which was that the costs would be assumed equally over each off the next four years, cost will now upload based on the cost centre. Implementation Schedule Year Item Amount % of the costs of Ontario Drug benefit 100% of the costs of the ODSP Administration % of the municipal cost of all client benefits which will represent 90% of the total client benefit costs Remaining 50% of the municipal cost of all client benefits will represent 100% of the total client benefit costs Accumulative Annualized Impact 1,303,144 1,303, ,927 2,245,071 2,590,678 4,835,749 2,590,677 7,426,426 Caring Growing Innovative 4

5 3. Lambton Room Fees $8,550 As a result of Council s motion in June 2007, it is estimated the above amount of new revenue will be earned in the Lambton Room in TOTAL 2008 IMPACT THROUGH REVENUE ENHANCEMENT $1,355,294 PART B. COST REDUCTIONS (a) Items Recommended by Staff for Consideration by Council: 4. Emergency Medical Services Eliminate 24/7 at One Station $445,000 The closure of an EMS station for one twelve (12) hour shift per day, would aid in achieving some of the requested savings. An analysis of the call volumes, time of the calls, nature of the calls and response times would have to be done in order to identify which station could best be down staffed and for which time period, with the least impact on the quality of the service. The Union contract would require three month s notice of any potential layoffs and would require the layoffs to occur in the reverse order of seniority. This could cause significant disruption as the process worked its way through the various stations and shifts. 5. Cultural Services Elimination of the Bookmobile $44,500 This service is only provided in the City of Sarnia and is the only library branch that the physical asset is both owned and operated by the County of Lambton. The current bookmobile was purchased in 1999 at a cost of $275,000 and has an estimated life of 15 years. The cost of maintenance, repairs and fuel for the Bookmobile totals $17,500 annually, while the remaining cost savings would come from staffing reductions. Again, Union contracts would require notice and severance pay. 6. Dawn Landfill RFP $45,000 The Dawn Landfill is the last of the County s operating landfills. It receives approximately 200 tonnes of waste from Dawn residents annually. To move Dawn residents to the Petrolia Landfill would cost the County approx. $6,600 (2007) annually and the Township would need to change the present system of collection (direct haul to landfill). The above number reflects the net operating cost savings if the landfill were purchased by a third party. A change in service area and the sale of landfill capacity is also an option but it is anticipated that given the location of the landfill it will be difficult to realize a net gain after other ongoing liabilities (monitoring, operation, etc.) are factored into the equation. Caring Growing Innovative 5

6 7. Sarnia Leachate Treatment Plant $150,000 The construction of a forcemain and subsequent decommissioning of the leachate treatment plant would be a cost-effective method of dealing with an underutilized facility. Leachate flows are much lower than designed for and the plant is reaching the 20 year point in its life where additional funds are going to be needed to keep it operational. Discussions with the City have ground to a halt until they can address their Secondary treatment plant effluent quality issues. They are reluctant to add our relatively small amount of leachate to the plant influent until they have resolved these. 8. Eliminate Wyoming Reception Staff $45,000 The Wyoming Administration building and Library Headquarters share a sophisticated voic system linked to their telephone system. This software could be programmed to intercept all incoming calls and prompt the caller to either dial the extension of the party they want directly or access an automated directory. With the pending integration of this system with those at the Lambton Shared Services Centre and the Community Health Services building, deploying this capability could eliminate the need for receptionists at the Administration building. Doing so, however, would also mean that visitors to the building would need to find there own way to the departments and individuals housed there, thus increasing security issues and concerns. (b) Items Recommended by Staff for Further Investigation: 9. Senior Services Reduce Levy by 10% $326,000 A plan to reduce the amount of levy required to operate the three homes by 10% over three years would need to be developed. Since wage and benefit costs comprise 80% of the Homes operating costs, the majority of the reduction would have to come from the elimination of positions. Staffing reductions were implemented in 2007 at Lambton Meadowview Villa and North Lambton, in accordance with the Core Service Review. Currently it is a requirement of the Ministry that every Home have a minimum of one RN on site 24 hours per day and there are new standards being considered related to the number of RPN s required. Coupled with these requirements are the staffing ratios contained in the Union Contracts related to the Registered Nurses (RN s) and the Registered Practical Nurses (RPN s). These restrictions leave little room to decrease either the number of RN s or RPN s. In order to achieve any savings, reductions would have to be made to the Personal Support Workers, the Dietary Aides or the Housekeeping staff, all staff which provide hands-on resident care. Caring Growing Innovative 6

7 Staff reductions could be achieved either by attrition or layoffs, and the plan would have to be implemented within the union contracts requirements. 10. Building Services Department Move to full cost recovery $352,585 There is more to the inspector s job than performing inspections onsite. They also give advice to the public on proposed projects from a building and zoning perspective, deal with nutrient management issues, etc. Because plumbing and septics are a County responsibility, plumbing permit fees and septic permit fees will need to be raised to offset costs incurred to provide those services. Plumbing and septics are provided County-wide to all local municipalities. 11. Move landfill disposal to User Pay $1,141,019 Tipping fees paid to private landfills will be allocated directly to each local municipality rather than through the levy. This issue is currently tied to the City-County agreement. Removing the above would still leave approximately $622,894 on the County levy to cover monitoring, maintenance, etc. of the County s closed landfills and the operation of the Sarnia Landfill Leachate Treatment Plant. 12. Planning & Development Eliminate grant to City for their planning department $497,017 This issue is currently tied to the City-County agreement. The agreement expires at the end of Council direction regarding the status of the agreement will be sought shortly. (c) Items Not Recommended by Staff for Implementation: 13. Close Library Branches $23,000 (est) A reduction in costs could also be achieved by closing library branches. Currently there are 26 branches spread across the 11 local municipalities. Ten of these branches are currently open only 12 hours (the minimum number under the current policy). The current arrangement for library services with the local municipalities is that they provide and maintain a suitable facility for the library branch and the County provides the staff, library materials, furniture, equipment and administrative support. This arrangement has been in place for many years and any changes made to the current level of library services would need to be done in conjunction with the local municipalities. Caring Growing Innovative 7

8 A full review of branch locations and alternate options would need to be undertaken prior to making a recommendation as to which branch/es could be closed. In addition, Union Contracts would require notice and severance pay. The estimated savings are based on the closure of one of the smaller library branches for a full year and would include only the staff wages. The closure of one branch would not reduce the related administrative expenses. 14. Waste Management Eliminate Household Hazardous Waste Program $135,000 This action may be premature in that the Minister of the Environment filed on December 11, 2006, Ontario Regulation 542/06 under the Waste Diversion Act (WDA) designating Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste (MHSW). Waste Diversion Ontario was directed to develop an industry funded program to collect a number of MHSW products. This should result in reduced costs for the County but an estimate is not available at this time. RECOMMENDATION THAT Council adopt the recommendations contained within the body of the report. Caring Growing Innovative 8

London Police Service Summary of Submitted 2014 Budget ($000's)

London Police Service Summary of Submitted 2014 Budget ($000's) Summary of Submitted 2014 Budget 2013 2014 Revised Budget Draft Budget Increase / (Decrease) Over Previous Year Service Expense Non Tax Net Property Tax Supported Expense Non Tax Net Property Tax Supported