NOSDA Names New Executive Director

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The Northern Ontario Service Deliverers Association is pleased to announce the secondment of Fern Dominelli as its new Executive Director.

“The need for a pan‐Northern strategy and plan focused on strengthening our communities’ human services systems has never been greater” stated Janet Gawne, Chair, NOSDA “We are excited to have Mr. Dominelli join our organization as the Executive Director to support our members and work closely with our northern municipal associations.”

Mr. Dominelli brings with him over 35 years of leadership experience in the human services sector and will lead NOSDA into post‐pandemic work focused on strengthening Northern Ontario’s affordable housing, social assistance, employment, childcare and paramedic services systems.

“I am proud and honored to have the opportunity to lead NOSDA and its members into a new and exciting future for the human services sector,” said Fern Dominelli. “I look forward to strengthening NOSDA’s strategic partnerships and continuing to build on our members’ incredible work which is already contributing so much to Northern Ontario’s economy and municipalities.”

In Northern Ontario, a group of 10 District Social Services Administration Boards (DSSAB’s) and the one Consolidated Municipal Services Managers (CMSM) have joined together to form NOSDA to create a more effective and holistic approach to supporting families, community, and industry in Northern Ontario.

2021 DTSSAB Budget Approved

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The District of Timiskaming Social Services Administration Board (DTSSAB) passed its 2021 budget at its meeting on February 17, 2021. Board Chair Doug Jelly stated “in 2021, as in every year, the DTSSAB is cognizant of the impact of our budget on our municipal partners. The Pandemic has been particularly hard for municipalities and we worked diligently on maximizing the financial contributions from the senior levels of government to minimize the impact on the municipal budget.”

The overall 2021 DTSSAB budget was $35,313,048 which is a 1.25% increase over 2020. The budget funds the following four programs in the district: Ontario Works ($10,323,965), Children Services ($9,773,958), Housing Services ($7,144,615) and Emergency Medical Services ($8,030,410). The increase in the overall budget is due to a shift in our Emergency Medical Services to 24/7 Supervision that will also help improve response capacity across the District resulting in a 2.0% ($131,274) increase to the municipal apportionment. This year the Board chose to remove funds from our working fund reserve in the amount of $166,100 to reduce the billing impact to municipalities and the unincorporated townships. Once again, we have used our working fund reserve to ensure the overall impact to our municipal partners is 0%.

“This is good news for our municipal partners,” commented Chair Doug Jelly. “The DTSSAB delivers these services on behalf of the district municipalities and we strive to ensure that our operational costs do not exceed the expectations of the municipalities and this year we were able to deliver a 0% increase. We were able to deliver a 0% increase budget to our municipalities despite much higher increases to costs to operate our programs especially with increased costs due to the pandemic.” commented Chair Doug Jelly

The municipal share of the overall budget is $6,702,894 (19.0%), the Territories Without Municipal Representation (TWOMO) contributes $1,774,587 (5.0%), federal/provincial share is $26, 532,567 (75.1%) and contributions from reserves of $303,000 (0.9%) consists of our revenue sources.

The result is eleven municipalities in the district will see a decrease and twelve municipalities will see an increase in their 2021 municipal billing. Of the twelve municipalities seeing an increase only six have an increase greater than 1.0%. The reason for a small number of municipalities seeing a decrease is a combination of assessment increases and/or Ontario Works caseload increase.

“Over the years the Board has kept the municipal apportionment as close to 0.0% as possible despite increases in salary and benefits and operating costs such as hydro and fuel, by using contributions of our reserves. Since 2008 we have used $2,124,100 from our working fund reserves.” noted Mr. Jelly. The Board, which consists of seven appointed municipal representatives and two elected representatives from the territories without municipal representation, bring the viewpoint of the local taxpayer and their municipality to the table and ensures that the budget is fair and responsible in delivering the services that the DTSSAB has been mandated to deliver. Our focus is always maintaining or increasing our services without having a negative impact on our municipalities.

For further information on the budget, please contact Kelly Black at 705-567-9366 ext. 3253 or 705-568-7791.

Emergency Services Toy Drive a Great Success

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The DTSSAB’s EMS program would like to express a big thank you to the individuals of Kirkland Lake and surrounding area who supported the Emergency Services Toy Drive this weekend at the Canadian Tire and Giant Tiger. We had an overwhelming response from the community who shared their generosity by donating toys and money.  Together with Kirkland Lake Fire & Emergency Services and Kirkland Lake OPP we were able to fill an ambulance, paramedic response unit, fire services pick up truck and police cruiser with toys, money and gift cards for all ages. It’s a privilege to be of service to a great and generous community!

A special thank you to all the firefighters, police officers and paramedics (and their kids) who volunteered to come out and brave the cold for a few hours for a great cause!

Also, a special shout out to those who dropped by with treats of hot chocolates, coffees and hand warmers. This was very thoughtful and much appreciated!

 
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Public Access to Offices Closed Until Further Notice Due to COVID-19 Pandemic

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Please be advised that due to the serious nature of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the District of Timiskaming Social Services Administration Board (DTSSAB) is taking further measures to protect our residents, employees and community.

These measures include closing public access of our offices in Kirkland Lake and Temiskaming Shores effective the end of the business day March 19, 2020.

All individuals seeking services of the DTSSAB are advised to call the office at one of the numbers listed below. There is a phone located outside the door of each office that will allow people to call our reception desk directly. In addition there are drop boxes at each office location and each of the social housing buildings that can be used (by our tenants).

Kirkland Lake 705-567-9366 OR 888-544-5555
Temiskaming Shores 705-647-7447 OR 800-627-2944

In-office visits are restricted to extreme emergencies only, and people will be directed to use the phone to communicate to office staff.

People receiving social assistance payments are strongly urged to set up Direct Bank Deposit if they haven’t already done so to avoid any complications with receiving their benefits. Anyone can call the number listed above if they need assistance with this.

All client emergency needs, including health and safety issues, will continue to be addressed. Tenants will be advised of alternative ways to pay their rent where necessary. Anyone requiring DTSSAB services are asked to call the number listed above. Staff continue to be in both DTSSAB offices.

“I commend all staff for taking such swift action to ensure everyone’s safety,” says DTSSAB Chair Doug Jelly.

“Senior Management have been working incredibly hard over the past week to put the necessary systems in place that will allow the DTSSAB to continue to provide essential services in our communities.”
— Doug Jelly, DTSSAB Board Chair

Essential core services that will continue include:

  • Issuing social assistance payments - Payments will not be disrupted. Please call the DTSSAB office if you require assistance.

  • All applications for social assistance and subsidized housing will be taken by phone by calling the phone numbers provided above.

  • Health and safety matters with our social housing properties will continue to be addressed, and essential maintenance continued.

As the situation evolves, further updates will be posted regularly on the DTSSAB website at www.dtssab.com and using our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

For further information please contact Kelly Black, Chief Administrative Officer, at 705-567-9366 ext 3253. Thank you for your cooperation and patience.

Open house @ 255 Grant Dr in Temiskaming Shores

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We will be having an open house at our newest residential building on June 10th from 10AM until 2PM.

The unit is located at 255 Grant Drive in Temiskaming Shores (behind Walmart). We look forward to seeing you there!

255 Grant Drive Fact Sheet (PDF)

New look for DTSSAB ambulances

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This past spring, Timiskaming paramedics decided it was time for a change. Almost every paramedic service across the province has chosen over the last 5 to 10 years to change their branding look of ambulances from the original orange and blue straight stripes. This has been a decision due to the fact the ambulances are operated now by local municipalities and districts with the ability to choose your own look instead of the old standard Ministry of Health choice.
The Timiskaming design was chosen entirely by the people who staff these ambulances, the team of Timiskaming Paramedics. It was narrowed down to a submission of five different designs that were drawn up and established by the frontline paramedics. One of those designs was the original current status quo design. The five designs were put to a staff vote.

A new ambulance ready to serve the citizens of Timiskaming

A new ambulance ready to serve the citizens of Timiskaming

Almost all of the entire staff of 50 paramedics casted a vote and in the end the final decision to go to a very simple, clean and crisp curved line design was chosen. The original colours of blue and orange won the vote despite some of the choices being, blue and high visible yellow as well as red and black. In the end, the paramedics are proud to say the new look is something they chose as a group and part time paramedic Eric Begemann was the designer around this final choice for the new look.

Paramedic Chief John McCarthy states that as current ambulances are replaced in years to come, new replacements will receive this new branding. It is anticipated that in approximately 2 and a half years the entire frontline fleet will carry the new look and overthe next 4-5 years, the entire fleet will be replaced with new ambulances and new branding.

The design also has a ghosted, transparent type, large decaled reflective star of life medical sign on each side of the ambulance. All decals are made of a highly reflective substance which reflects light at night time to make the ambulance more visible and safe at the scene of an emergency.
The rear doors will continue to have a chevron safety pattern applied as well as privacy blocking perforated window film applied over the back windows to ensure more night time privacy for the patient inside the ambulance.
Lettering on the side of the ambulance has been slightly changed to show the word PARAMEDICS to be larger and more emphasized then the word AMBULANCE. These two words have also been incorporated in the design to be more visible from both the front and rear views of the ambulance.

“What I’m most proud of is being able to implement a fresh look to our ambulance fleet without costing the tax payer additional money.”
— John McCarthy, EMS Chief

For 2018, Timiskaming EMS budgeted to replace two new ambulances and therefore the new decal design was applied to these two new ambulances. This year
Timiskaming has chosen to try two new Chevrolet chassis type ambulances instead of the common Ford ambulances as it offers a few more safety and comfort features not yet available in the Ford chassis. The new vehicles have been equipped with powerautomatic lifting and loading stretchers which decrease the amount of heavy lifting placed on the paramedic throughout a shift as well as increase the comfort level of the patient.
Once again heated blanket boxes are installed in the 2018 models for the comfort and care of patients when faced with the extreme cold temperatures in northern Ontario.
The ambulances have onboard vehicle tracking systems to aid in locating and dispatching an ambulance to a location for an emergency when needed as well as greatly assist with the preventative maintenance of the vehicle. This year will be a first for Timiskaming ambulances; you will feel the ambulance before you see it when it is coming down a road during an emergency. The siren has unique installed equipment which emits very low frequency sound vibrations during the operation of the typical siren tones. This then causes penetrating vibrating sound of the siren during an emergency. These howler sirens have been used for a few years in the USA as well as a few scattered paramedic services across the province.

Timiskaming Paramedics are proud to begin using these new vehicles and offering emergency patient care to the citizens of Timiskaming in some of the safest and most well equipped ambulances available within North America.

The new ambulances are just receiving some final finishing touches and stocking of equipment. It is anticipated the vehicles should begin answering 911 calls towards the last week of September or first week of October 2018.