Councillor Bill Roberts’s “Disability without Poverty” resolution calls on the federal government to make its new Canada Disability Benefit ($2,400) exempt from federal income taxes.
At the June 10 Regular meeting, the Councillor noted one in four Ontarians live with a disability and are twice as likely to live in poverty. Yet, the disabled require an average of 30 percent more income just to reach the poverty line.
Mr. Roberts noted the poverty line for a family of four in a community with a population under 30,000 is roughly $45,000. A single wage earner in a disability household can still be saddled with an income tax rate of 26 per cent, meaning an estimated $600 of the new benefit will be clawed back by the CRA.
For some, those funds could make the difference in hard choices between food and shelter.
“I think that’s not fair,” he said. “Living with a disability is one thing. But living with a disability and in poverty is a whole other misery and we should be doing our best to change that.”
The resolution passed unanimously.
The median household income in the County, $75k, is below both the Ontario median household income of $84K and the Ontario Living Wage Network’s estimated rate for Eastern Ontario of $90k.
Councillor Chris Braney tabled a resolution challenging Strong Mayor Powers under the provisions of the Municipal Act, in particular, the new authority of Mayor Steve Ferguson’s office to create the 2026 budget.
Mayor Ferguson has maintained that despite Strong Mayor Powers, budget building will remain a collaborative creation between staff and Council.
The resolution requests the Mayor to direct staff to review the 2026 budget process and prepare options and opportunities for an improved 2026 timeline and process.
Councillor Braney noted that senior staff, including interim CAO Adam Goheen and Director of Finance Arryn McNichol, and fellow councillors have held discussions on budget transparency, process and communication with the community.
“There’s an opportunity to fine tune, come up with a new process and make the process a lot more enjoyable than it has been in the past few years,” Councillor Braney said of the resolution. It passed unanimously.
Recent rain has severely exacerbated the County’s poor road conditions. With that in mind, Council unanimously passed Councillor Sam Grosso’s motion to have staff report back at the earliest possible opportunity on the County’s five year road improvement plan. The plan was adopted in 2023. This report will identify goals, challenges, status of implementation and opportunities to revise the plan. The motion came out of the ashes of Councillor Roy Pennell’s failed resolution to create a rural councillor and citizen roads working group. Mr. Pennell’s design was to combine concerned citizenry with roads staff and “help overcome our present state of roads problems and to develop a short and long term solution for road maintenance.”
A collaborative concept to be sure. But one a majority of councillors deemed unnecessary.
“We have a communication gap with the public more than anything else,” Mayor Steve Ferguson said.
Interim CAO Adam Goheen pointed to the working sessions that are ongoing between senior municipal staff and council. The April 29 asset management conversation focussed on road conditions and a 10 year $200-250 million rehabilitation program.
Staff unveiled their summer public consultation and engagement strategy at the June 12 work session. “Public engagement allows residents to say exactly the condition they want our roads to be in,” Mr. Goheen said. “That conversation isn’t about which road per se, but the overall condition of County roads. That will set the level of funding and that level will guide future investment.”
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