Saying they needed more time and information on how best to support community groups, councillors on the city’s finance and corporate services committee voted to delay a decision on the controversial Community Partners Insurance Scheme.
The program, a holdover from the city’s amalgamation in 2001, saw the city help pay the insurance costs of some, but not all, community groups. The program costs the city $234,000 a year to subsidise commercial and general liability insurance for 124 community groups. But hundreds of other groups are left to cover those costs on their own, leading to complaints of an unfair “two-tier” system.
City staff proposed that the $234,000 be transferred to another pool of money, the Community Funding Framework, which would distribute support according to a common set of criteria based on fairness and transparency. It also recommended the city reconsider its highly risk-averse stance, which staff say puts too much of an insurance burden on community groups that can’t afford it.
But delegation after delegation at Tuesday’s meeting worried about what would happen to their groups if they didn’t get help from the city to pay their premiums.
“What’s being proposed is not going to help community groups,” said Lorne Cutler of the Hampton-Iona Community Association.
“If we now require insurance coverage for everything we do, I suspect a lot of community groups will say, ‘Why should we sign up to clean the park? We’re giving the city free labour and now we have to get insurance. … One day they’re going to look at these things and say, ‘It’s not worth it. ”
Alex Cullen, a former councillor and spokesman for the Federation of Citizens Associations, said the decision to postpone was a good one.
“This was a bad report for community associations. We’ve been asking for dialogue with the council and we haven’t been successful. I think the message has finally gotten through to them and we look forward to the opportunity to work with them to come up with a better program that meets everyone’s needs,” said Cullen.
Ottawa is the only city in Canada that helps community associations pay their insurance premiums, said Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.
“It was something that I think was supposed to be phased out over time and it still hasn’t been phased out, 23 years after amalgamation,” Sutcliffe told reporters after the meeting.
“We need to look at how we can move forward in a way that doesn’t put pressure on taxpayers’ money, doesn’t leave community organisations in the lurch and is fair and equitable. It’s not easy to sort all that out when you’re dealing with dozens, possibly hundreds of organisations”.
The issue will come back to councillors in February.
