2018 Annual General Meeting – Proceedings Document JUNE 12, 13 & 14, 2018 SENATOR HOTEL AND CONFERENCE CENTRE TIMMINS, ONTARIO 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS OPENING REMARKS: IAIN ANGUS, EXECUTIVE CHAIR, NOSDA ……………. 3 PRESENTATIONS ………………………………………………………………….........7 SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES ………………………………………………………………16 2018 RESOLUTIONS …………………………………………………………………….23 NOTE: PRESENTATIONS AND PHOTO JOURNAL ARE ON LINE AT: www.nosda.net 2 1.0 OPENING REMARKS – IAIN ANGUS, CHAIR Welcome to the 17th Annual General Meeting of NOSDA! I am joined in welcoming you by our two Vice Chairs: Barry Baltessen and Janet Gawne. I’d ask you now to join me in a Moment’s Silence for Don McBain who joined the Spirit World last September 2017 at the age of 58. Don had a deep respect for indigenous culture and was a strong advocate for indigenous housing in Ontario and across Canada. Don was a great believer in partnerships and was a true partner and friend of NOSDA. He will be missed. Until about a month ago, it seemed that not a week went by without a major public policy announcement that affects what we do on a daily basis. Only time will tell what announcements the new government will make that will affect how we do business and what business we are in. The province completed its review of the DSSAB Act and we have an Omnibus Resolution to be dealt with at this year’s meeting that addresses its findings. We will continue that discussion later at this meeting. We participated in the Ambulance Act Review and the MCSS Modernization and Service System Review. I want to speak for a moment about your CAOs. As individual Board members you see your CAO as the professional who comes to the table with well thought out recommendations or options for you to consider. But at the same time, these knowledgeable and passionate professionals never leave sight of the fact that at the end of the day, you, the elected Boards, make the decisions that are appropriate for your Boards and the people you serve. Your executive is proud to work closely with these remarkable individuals! And it is their efforts that guide the substantive work of NOSDA. They are our and your experts and help shape the messages we take to government on a regular basis. I now want to ask Fern Dominelli, the Chair of the CAO working group to introduce his team. I want to recognize the work of Chris Stewart, NOSDA’s Executive Coordinator. Chris is the glue that has not only kept this organization together but has been a key factor in our growing relationship with the administrators of the Ontario Government. This is Chris’s last AGM and while I will have a bit more to say about him later this week, please give it up for Chris Stewart. The Executive, and in particular the Chair of the Executive remains the political voice of NOSDA and we generated a number of items of correspondence that were addressed to senior levels of government. These led to a number of interesting and productive meetings. NOSDA continued to grow in respect and influence with the Government of Ontario and its officials over the past year. We regularly get quality face time with Ministers, DMs, ADMs, policy staff and other officials – and not just for 15 minutes but for significant amounts of time and on repeated occasions. 3 Since last year’s AGM we have met with the following Ministers: Ministers: • Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development and Deputy Premier Deb Matthews • Hon. Indira Naidoo-Harris, Minister of Education • Hon. Helena Jaczek, Minister of Community and Social Services • Hon. Peter Milczyn, Minister of Housing • Hon. Dennis Flynn, Minister of Labour • Sean Baird, Vice President, WSIB Assistant Deputy Ministers: • Erin Hannah, MCSS • Richard Steele, MCSS • Janet Hope, Ministry of Housing • Shannon Fuller, Ministry of Education In addition, we met with key staff from the North East and North West LHINs and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Your team also takes on key leadership roles in a range of fields: Bill Bradica remains Board Chair, Housing Services Corporation. Henry Wall remains on OMMSA Board, as does Dan McCormick as their Vice Chair. Other CAOs are active in a broad range of panels and consultation processes ensuring that the North’s voice is not only heard but listened to. Thanks to all of you for your ongoing work. And thank you, the members of the Boards of our members and you the staff of those organizations who do so much for so many people across the North. In addition, we met with the President and board members of the OMSSA Board in Thunder Bay this May. It was noted that now that OMSSA has re-organized its space and staff, this is an appropriate juncture to lay some groundwork for partnership building between the two organizations. 4 Some activity that was discussed included: • Joint Policy advocacy positions on each area of intersection between MOHLTC and OMSSA/NOSDA • Development of a formal process for consultation between OMSSA and NOSDA • Review and operationalize the MoU between us • Engage in an ongoing basis • Develop a Calendar of Events • Have an ongoing section of agendas for an update on each other’s activities • Develop an orientation package on what the organizations do for new hires Finally, it was agreed that meetings of this nature between the two organizations should occur on an annual basis. It is important to note that we value our good working relationship with the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres and Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services, both whom we have MOUs with. We will be reaching out to them in the near term to plan similar joint meetings between our respective Boards. And now we have a new Provincial Government! We know we will have to build our relationships with the new Ministers and any new Deputy Ministers and Assistant Deputy Ministers that may be assigned to the Ministries we deal with. We also must gear up to meet with the new officials to ensure they understand and appreciate the importance of listening to NOSDA to better understand the issues that affect Northern Ontario and the people we serve. And we need to fully understand what the new government is committed to and the implications for individual DSSABs and their clients. At this point in time we do not know the impacts of their approach, on either the people we serve or how we operate. Time will tell. In the meantime, I thought it would be helpful to our discussions over the next few days to share with you some of the elements of their platform that may directly or indirectly impact what we do. • Create a 75% refundable tax credit for child care costs for children aged 0 - 15 and respect parents by leaving to them the choice of what kind of child care is best for their kids. • Increase the supply of affordable housing across the GTA while protecting the Greenbelt in its entirety. • Lower Gas Taxes by 10 Cents a Litre. • No Income Tax for Minimum Wage Workers. 5 • Help fill the skills gap by increasing access to apprenticeships and reforming the foreign credential recognition process to help qualified immigrants come to Ontario and contribute to the economy to their fullest potential immediately. • End hallway health care by creating 15,000 new long-term care beds over the next 5 years and adding $3.8 billion in new support for mental health, addictions and housing. • Introduce free dental care for low-income seniors. • Uphold moratorium on school closures until the closure review process is reformed. • Provide an additional $38 million in funding for all children with autism, above and beyond the funding already in the government’s plan. • Move forward with resource revenue sharing from mining, forestry and aggregates to help Northern towns and Indigenous communities share in resource development. • Commit resources to combat domestic abuse, including elder abuse. • Preserve rent control for existing tenants across Ontario. Finally, there is the promise of finding 4% or $6 billion in savings. What will be the impact, if anything, on Ontario Works, Child Care, Social Housing and EMS services. Some of the promises of the new government will be beneficial to our clients and to our member municipalities. Others will present challenges to what we do. It will be the job of NOSDA to support those initiatives that will make life better for our clients and to do our best to work with the new government to modify those elements that we believe will adversely affect either our clients or our operations. We also need to recognize that we are in a transition period and that it may be months before we know exactly what the new Government will do, how they will do it and the timing for implementation. Your Board will remain vigilant, keep you informed and continue to advocate on your behalf. I want to conclude with a paraphrase of a so called ancient Chinese curse: “We live in interesting times”. Thank You With that I now want to turn to the agenda of tonight’s business session. 6 2.0 PRESENTATIONS The 2018 NOSDA AGM Presentations available can be viewed at www.nosda.net/agm/agm- documents#presentations NOSDA Keynote Speech: Partners in Innovative Social Change, Jamie Rodrigues, Vice President, TD Securities Opening Thanks very much for having me here tonight. It's great to be in front of an organization working together to provide essential services in northern Ontario. During the day I work on a pretty noisy trading floor, and those that know me well know that I’m happy finding any excuse to get off the trading floor for a day or two, so I’m especially happy to be here today in Timmins.