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Appendix I: Annual Report 2009-010
Income and Employment Supports
During 2009-10, the ministry continued to improve Ontario’s social assistance programs while managing increased social assistance caseload and costs, much of which was driven by the 2008 global economic downturn.
- Since 2008, the Ontario Works caseload has grown almost 27 per cent.
- Over the last three years, the Ontario Disability Support Program caseload has grown by five per cent per year, on average, and this rate is expected to continue given the province’s aging demographic and increasing incidence of disability.
Despite the difficult economic climate, Ontario’s social assistance programs worked well in helping people move back into the workforce:
- In 2009-10, nearly one fifth of Ontario Works participants left social assistance for jobs.
- About 60 per cent of the cases on Ontario Works have been on the program for a year or less; those remaining have increased their earnings by about 35 percent since 2004.
- More than 10,600 people on ODSP were earning income in 2009-10 – a 67 per cent increase since 2003-04.
In addition, the ministry made changes to social assistance rules to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. These include:
- Allowing full-time postsecondary students to keep all of their earnings to make it easier for them to work and save money while pursuing educational opportunities.
- Extending coverage for up-front child-care costs to people who need it to continue to work or pursue employment-assistance activities, such as job-specific skills training. This helps low-income families make the transition from social assistance to work.
In 2009-10, the ministry continued to promote the government’s employment strategy for Ontario Disability Support Program clients. In January 2010, the ministry enhanced its efforts to connect employers with people using Ontario Disability Support Program’s employment supports. Ontario Disability Support Program employment services providers are now using the Don’t Waste Talent campaign to encourage people with disabilities to pursue employment and to give employers the tools and information they need to hire an Ontario Disability Support Program Employment Supports client.
The ministry has also embarked on a major initiative aimed at improving customer service in the ODSP program.
As part of its Poverty Reduction Strategy, the government established the Social Assistance Review Advisory Council in January 2010 to provide recommendations on the scope of a review of social assistance programs. The review will focus on removing barriers to employment and increasing social assistance recipients’ opportunities.
Community Services
In 2009-10, the ministry continued to provide funding to municipalities and community organizations to support an array of community services including:
- the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy;
- shelters and counselling for women and their children fleeing domestic violence;
- interpreters and intervenors for people who are deaf, deafened, hard of hearing or deafblind; and
- homelessness prevention programs and hostels for fragile or hard-to-house people.
Investing in Stronger Aboriginal Communities
The ministry continued its support for the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy, a partnership between the province and 14 Aboriginal provincial/territorial organizations and independent First Nations. To date, the Strategy has created more than 460 community-based health and healing programs, generated more than 650 jobs, and trained 1,000 staff each year in health and social services on and off reserve. In a typical year, the Strategy provides direct services to more than 40,000 clients through 360 projects. In addition, more than 450,000 community members each year take part in thousands of education and awareness activities sponsored through the Strategy.
In 2009-10, the provincial and Aboriginal partners to the Strategy began the work to renew the Strategy. In December 2009, the government committed to continue funding for Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy programs and services to March 2011 to allow for the transition to a new governance model.
Preventing and Addressing Homelessness
To assist people who are facing a housing crisis, the ministry continued to fund a range of homelessness services. This included funding for emergency hostels, domiciliary hostels, emergency energy assistance and support services that allow people to stay in their homes.
The ministry also provided nearly $36 million to municipalities to support the operations of fund approximately 280 domiciliary hostels that provide supports for people who are hard to house. Domiciliary hostels across Ontario house about 4,900 people with mental health issues, addiction issues, developmental disabilities or those who are frail and elderly.
Supporting Victims of Domestic Violence
The ministry’s services for women and their children who are fleeing domestic violence are part of a coordinated network of services delivered through 13 Ontario government ministries and the Ontario Women’s Directorate. Together, these services support the government’s $87-million Domestic Violence Action Plan first announced in 2005.
The ministry funds 2,012 beds in 97 emergency shelters for abused women, serving approximately 13,000 women and nearly 9,000 children each year. In 2009-10, the ministry provided new funding to support an additional 83 beds in existing shelters throughout Ontario.
The ministry also built on its investments in community support, shelter, counselling and second stage housing services for victims of domestic violence. In total, the ministry provided $140 million to programs that help reduce domestic violence, including:
- an extra $430,000 for 48 Domestic Violence Community Coordinating Committees to continue to support a coordinated, effective system of supports to improve the community response to the needs of domestic violence victims. This included base funding to support an Aboriginal specific committee in Thunder Bay;
- an additional $850,000 to enhance base funding for violence against women counselling agencies;
- working with the Ontario Women’s Directorate and partnering with the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres to provide violence prevention training that focuses specifically on Aboriginal women;
- funding to 67 violence prevention agencies to deliver the child witness program for children who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence. In 2008-09, 4,611 children and 2,971 women participated in the program;
- funding to 127 violence prevention agencies to deliver the Transitional and Housing Support Program, which provides support to more than 20,000 women seeking to establish their lives, free of violence; and
- funding for provincial crisis lines which received more than 58,921 calls; of these 49,777 were to the Assaulted Women’s Help Line and 9,144 were to the French crisis line, Femaide.
Supporting People who are Deaf or Deafblind
The ministry funds interpreter services that facilitate communication for people who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing, and intervenor services for people who are deafblind. In 2009-10, the ministry increased agency base budgets and improved salaries to attract and retain qualified interpreter and intervenor staff. The ministry also funded training and expanded French sign language services – langue des signes québébcoise – offered by the Canadian Hearing Society.
The ministry’s investments are helping to increase the number of individuals who receive intervenor and interpreter services. The ministry provided interpreter services to nearly 18,000 people, and intervenor services for more than 500 individuals who are deafblind.
Updating Ontario’s Adoption Information Laws
Ontario’s new adoption information disclosure law gives adopted adults and birth parents whose adoptions were registered in Ontario more access to information while protecting their privacy.
In June 2009, the province opened adoption records so adopted adults may learn the names of their birth parents and their personal history. Birth parents may now discover their adopted child’s name. A birth parent or an adopted person involved in an Ontario adoption finalized before September 1, 2008 can file a disclosure veto to prevent their identifying information from being released.
The ministry works with ServiceOntario to provide post adoption disclosure services. As of the end of February, 2010, ServiceOntario had received:
- 9,634 applications for post-adoption birth information;
- 6,625 disclosure veto applications;
- 1,594 no contact notice applications; and
- 2,380 notice of contact preference applications.
The MCSS Custodian of Adoption Information provides the following services:
- non-identifying information;
- the Adoption Disclosure Register;
- severe medical searches; and
- Adoption Orders with identifying information removed.
Developmental Services
The ministry supports children and adults with a developmental disability and their families with funding for day programs and residential supports, as well as clinical supports and personal services for individuals who have high support needs. In 2009/10, the ministry invested more than $28 million to improve wages for front line workers in the sector. This is in addition to more than $100 million invested in wages over the previous two years. Through these investments, the developmental services sector is better able to attract and retain qualified workers.
In 2009-10, the ministry worked with developmental services agencies across the province to find ways to serve more people who need developmental services and make every dollar invested in the system work harder. The ministry set specific targets for increased service and developmental services agencies exceeded the targets, redirecting more than $19 million to serve 1,215 new clients including 750 new clients in residential services.
The ministry continued working with community agencies, families and people with a developmental disability on the long-term transformation of Ontario’s developmental services. In 2009-10, the ministry consulted on two draft regulations that fall under Ontario’s new Services and Supports to Promote the Social Inclusion of Persons with Developmental Disabilities Act, 2008 legislation. The draft regulations, once finalized, will set out what services and supports funded under the new Act are available for direct funding agreements, provide further detail on who is eligible for services and outline a quality assurance framework for agencies who receive funding for developmental services.
In October 2009, the new developmental services application package was launched and is being piloted with priority groups of people with a developmental disability. This is a key component of the ministry’s plan to improve fairness and equity in the developmental services system. The ministry estimates that about 1,200 application packages will be completed in 2010/11.
The ministry also consulted with the developmental services community on the best approach to designating new application entities in a transformed developmental services system, and work on this will continue through 2010-11.
Family Responsibility Office
The Family Responsibility Office enforces court-ordered support orders so that families get the money they are owed so they can lead more financially secure, self-sufficient and productive lives.
In 2009-10, the Family Responsibility Office continued to move to a case management model of service delivery. This is a long-term project that will modernize the way the Family Responsibility Office handles its work, and once it is completed, clients will see continued improvements.
The Family Responsibility Office has more than 189,000 active registered cases. And each year, lawyers make more than 17,500 court appearances, including 13,079 default hearings and 1,472 refraining motions.
Despite the economic challenges of the past year, Family Responsibility Office staff continued to maintain compliance at pre-recession levels and collected $647.2 million in support payments. The Family Responsibility Office also recovered $40.8 million that was paid back to the province and municipalities to cover social assistance that had been paid to recipients.
Accessibility
Working to meet the mandate of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, in 2009-10 the ministry undertook a significant amount of work to support the government’s goal of building an accessible Ontario by 2025. The province’s first accessibility standard – accessible customer service – has applied to the public sector since January 2010. Broader public sector organizations had to report their compliance with the standard by March 31, 2010. Compliance reporting rates as of March 31, 2010 stood at approximately 90 per cent and we are continuing to work to improve accessibility in all areas of society.
Throughout 2009-10, accessibility standards development committees finalized their proposed standards for employment, information and communications, and transportation, and submitted them to the Minister. The built environment accessibility standard is expected to be finalized later this year.
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| BPS Consolidation | |
| Staff Strength (as of March 31, 2010) |
*The 2009-10 Expenditures are restated to reflect Supplementary Estimates and transfers with other ministries as approved in the 2010-11 Estimates.
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