By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Among the tasks the new Northumberland County Chief Administrative Officer will tackle is a matter referred to that office by county council at its December meeting.
The original three-page motion presented by Councillor Lucas Cleveland asks staff to present council with a list of third-party contractors qualified to conduct “a comprehensive and laborious review of the county’s social-services system – including all programs and organizations currently receiving county funding and our community partners within the system.”
The motion set out in detail what the minimum scope of such a review might entail – an internal corporate structure review, internal and external policies and procedures, procurement practices and contractor accountability, provincial-level advocacy opportunities, and service and funding model alignment.
“I really see this as the job of the new CAO, who will want to do some level of strategic reorganizational discovery as they take on that leadership role,” Councillor Brian Ostrander said in making the motion to refer it to that route.
Otherwise, Ostrander said, the county might be spending an unbudgeted $100,000 on such a study without getting proper value in return.
That figure pales, Cleveland said, beside “the millions of dollars we spent every year delivering substandard social services” – a remark that engendered several comments defending the work that department does in a time of growing need and reduced Federal and provincial levels of support.
With its references to unspecified success stories in Alberta and Portugal, the motion seemed to Deputy Warden Mandy Martin to have an inherent bias that gave her pause.
“I admit to it, I own it and I appreciate it,” Cleveland agreed, stating that he had prepared the motion with the help of the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse, the fentanyl drug czar and members of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
“This was written with a bias, a bias I am happy to have,” he stated.
“I will take offense to that as someone who has to manage finite resources in an infinite world,” Ostrander said.
“We are given only so much from the province, and we know the substandard resources they are providing to this community – and frankly every community across Northumberland – to resource what should be provincially responsible items.”
Ostrander made his motion at that point to refer the matter for advice from the new CAO, and Cleveland requested a recorded vote. He was joined in opposing Ostrander’s motion only by Councillor Olena Hankivsky.
