With Orillia experiencing higher than average rates of poverty in Simcoe County, city council has supported the creation of a poverty reduction strategy in partnership with Lakehead University.
Mayor Don McIsaac, along with councillors Janet-Lynn Durnford and Jay Fallis, brought the idea forward at Monday’s council meeting.
Durnford and CAO Gayle Jackson will work with Lakehead to develop the strategy, which may include the following:
- Assessing the city’s current poverty-reduction policies;
- Creating focus groups to gain insight into the experience of poverty in Orillia;
- Engaging community partners from various sectors to create a long-term poverty reduction strategy;
- Identifying potential funding opportunities;
- Increasing community awareness about the impact childhood trauma has on health, social outcomes, and the cycle of poverty, and more
A request for up to $50,000 to support the project will be discussed during 2024 budget deliberations.
“Poverty is more than just low income, and it has to do with dignity, with opportunity and inclusion, and resilience and security,” Durnford said. “When you look at where Orillia is placed compared to other municipalities in Simcoe County, the statistics are pretty dire.”
In their report, the three council members highlighted a number of concerning realities Orillia currently faces in comparison to other Simcoe County communities.
Orillia has the highest percentage of its population living below what's known as the "market basket measure," a measure of income based on the cost of goods and services to provide a basic standard of living for a typical family.
Within the county, Orillia has the second highest number of renter households spending more than 30 per cent of their income on housing, and the largest share of residents in core housing need – a household with a dwelling that is unsuitable, inadequate, or unaffordable.
Orillia also has the second highest percentage of the population aged 25-64 without a high school diploma, and the second lowest after-tax median income, among a variety of other realities identified in the report.
“We have twice the rate of alcohol attributable deaths, and the highest amount of emergency visits for opioid poisonings in Simcoe County,” Durnford said. “What that tells us is that poverty is a problem here.”
The report also looks at how adverse childhood experiences and can affect poverty, and how a lack of intervention can lead to poverty compounding within the community.
“What this research shows us is that poverty compounds: it increases from one generation to the next, if nothing changes to stop it or mitigate it,” Durnford said.
“Looking not only from a human compassion viewpoint, but also from an economic viewpoint, that leads to a loss of human capital in our community – people who are able to support themselves and support the economic activity in our community so that we can have a productive and growing community.”
Durnford highlighted a variety of city services that can be part of the poverty reduction strategy, like the youth centre, the library, transit services, affordable housing incentives, recreation and culture programs, and more.
“These are all services that are within municipal jurisdiction that can have an impact on poverty,” she said. “Poverty reduction strategies are about forming connections between people and their families, and people and their communities, and ensuring that people feel supported by their community.”
More about the project’s funding requirements will be known in the coming weeks, Durnford said, but the idea is to work with Lakehead and some of its postgraduate social work students to help develop the strategy.
“I think this is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity to to use that partnership with Lakehead to ensure that what is developed is very Orillia focused, and to save ourselves some money so that we can use the savings that could have been spent on a consultant to actually deliver some programs and perhaps offer some subsidies,” she said.
Council unanimously supported developing a poverty reduction strategy for the city.
