Housing, homelessness, public health, health care staffing shortages and conservation authority amalgamation were among the topics discussed between Belleville City Council and local MPPs Tyler Allsopp and Ric Bresee on Tuesday.
The two-hour roundtable saw the members of Provincial Parliament for Bay of Quinte and Hastings-Lennox and Addington answer more than thirty prepared questions from council with councillors allowed time at the end of the session to ask follow-up questions for more clarity.
The MPPs answered several questions related to housing.
MPP Bresee says increasing the housing supply is the main goal.
“The best thing we can do is make sure that the economy is strrong, so that we can have good people can have good jobs, they can afford housing. We’ve been working towards lowering the cost of housing, and we’ve seen some success in that. I believe right now, the rental costs are down about 8% over the last two years.”
MPP Allsopp says both the provincial and federal governments are making investments to make housing more affordable.
“I mean, $8.8 billion agreement, just last week, to help produce development charges by 50%, provided that those two levels of government don’t lobby any new taxes to fund that. You saw the other day, $130,000 in HST, being the maximum amount waived on new home sales, up to about $1.5 million.”
Belleville councillors have expressed concerns that the city is bearing the brunt of costs for court house services which are used by multiple municipalities.
Allsopp says the province working towards a solution.
“We continue to have discussions, both between my staff and the staff of the ministry of the solicitor general, as well as directly with the solicitor general about the issue, but it is absolutely top of mind, and I think that other municipalities that are using those services should pay their fair share, and then that’s not a controversial viewpoint to have, and we’ll continue to advocate for that. “
Bresee says the Solicitor General is also looking ways to strengthen the overall legal system including improving funding models for policing.
Council recently denied a three per cent funding increase to the newly amalgamated Southeast Public Health after finding out the organization has a surplus for this year.
Allsopp agrees the matter could have been handled better.
“And I do not appreciate how that was handled. I think that a lot more clarity could have been provided. And that’s something I will be reaching out to them about. Because you know council needs to have the information that’s relevant to the decisions they’re making. And I think in that respect there was certainly a failure.”
Bresee says while there will be some growing pains with the amalgamations, he’s confident the new system will be stronger overall.
Both MPPs said health care is a priority matter for constituents and the province could do a better of job of promoting the Health Care Connect system to encourage people to sign up for the program to help match them with a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
Bresee says the system is not broken, but is facing huge challenges including a large increase in population.
“But we currently have more healthcare professionals, more doctors, more nurses, more nurse practitioners than we have ever had in this province. We also have more patients, and with the increasing age of these patients, we’re seeing a higher need, a higher demand.”
He notes Ontario currently has the highest rate of rostered patients in the country.
With Belleville’s HART Hub just about ready to open, both MPPs said the province is taking homelessness and mental health issues seriously and will continue to act.
Allsopp says the most recent point-in-time homeless counts do show a reduction in homelessness in the region but agrees more can be done and that they will continue to advocate for funding and programs to address the issues.
Both noted that more long term care beds are being added across the region and there are increases to meals and per diem funding per resident.
Allsopp who was previously a parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Long Term Care says the four hours of care per resident per day is a lofty goal they’ve been able to achieve.
“But we currently have more healthcare professionals, more doctors, more nurses, more nurse practitioners than we have ever had in this province. We also have more patients, and with the increasing age of these patients, we’re seeing a higher need, a higher demand. We have gotten there, and the newest budget, we put for an additional $139.4 million, four long term care broadly, $44.1 million of it, I believe, are specific to funding to make sure that people in our long term care homes are getting four hours a day of direct care, as well as 36 minutes a day. of Allied health professional care. “
Allsopp says planning continues for the Belleville East Arterial Road (BEAR) which would add another exit off Highway 401 to the city’s industrial park with some environmental assessments and other planning projects completed.
“So, as we continue through this project, we continue to fund the steps moving forward. There’s no question how important it will be for that next phase. of industrial land.
Bresee, the current parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Transportation, also says planning for the widening of Highway 401 east to the Quebec continues.
“ Over the next few years, what you’ll see is the work on the bridges, the culverts, and things of that nature, to allow for that accommodation of the wider 401, moving it to three lanes on each side, eventually, to four lanes on each side.”
Many local councils are extremely concerned about the province’s plan to amalgamate three dozen conservation authorities into nine organizations.
Bresee says the new system will bring consistency.
“And with the new Central Agency, some of the paperwork, some of the online services that will be available will be consistent across all regional conservation authorities, and therefore cost savings. With that, we’ve also been told that there will be local conservation councils that will represent the specific, I’ll call it subwatershed.”
Both MPPs said they have major concerns with the proposed Alto high speed rail line that would run through the area with little information available.
And if the line does indeed go through, they say they will work with the federal government to improve communication to learn more about the plan and ensure all concerns are addressed accordingly.
Allsopp and Bresee said several times during the meeting they are committed to advocating for the City to get it what it needs from the province.
A roundtable involving local members of the federal government was held last month.
