Over 70 people gathered at the Aurora Cultural Centre on Tuesday night to participate in a community budget consultation hosted by Minister of Finance Rod Phillips.

Deputy Premier Christine Elliot and MPP Michael Parsa were also present and the trio listened to 27 voices and a wide range of issues.

Funding, healthcare priorities, and red tape were among the several concerns presented by people from a variety of industries.

The president and CEO of a film production company shared how a bureaucratic delay cost him time and money.

“The biggest hindrance in the film industry is red tape. To qualify for a production, you have to get a certificate from ONBC, but these certificates are constantly being held up just because of the inefficiency in the system. It took ONBC six months to give me a certificate because of which I paid in excess of $10,000 to the bank in the form of interest. I could have used that money to hire writers or start a new production,” he said.

Christina Bisanz, CEO of CHATS, a community and home assistance service for seniors, presented her case for better elderly care.

“We provide support to over 8,500 older adults and caregivers throughout York Region,” she said. “The good news is that people are living longer, but, unfortunately, they are also living longer with more complex health and mental health care needs. Home and community care is a key part of the solution to reduce the demand for long term care homes. This budget provides the government an opportunity to strategically invest in rebalancing the health care system.

“Last year, 18,000 people living in long term care homes could have continued to live at home and their communities if proper support was available and properly funded,” she added, imploring the government to also look into expanding dental care for older adults and to invest in transportation services specifically for the frail elderly and those with cognitive impairments.

Clovis Grant, CEO of 360 Kids, a youth organization in York Region, spoke to the dearth of services for homeless youth.

“Thirty years ago, there was no service for homeless youth in York Region, and part of the belief was that there are no homeless youth in York Region. Today, we serve 3,500 young people in a variety of programs. Homelessness is a $7 billion per year problem in Canada, and there is not enough focus on earlier intervening. I ask for greater investments in organizations like ours doing this work. We have not seen an increase in provincial funding for 15 years,” he stated. 

Each speaker took their turn to speak as the ministers listened in.

Minister Phillips assured the audience that each individual story is important.

“This is the fourth of 30 sessions, so we'll keep listening to what people say. Tonight, we heard similar concerns that people have. People concerned about government wasting money, people concerned about government not spending enough money, people concerned about businesses not being able to be successful so that they can pay taxes so the government has the money. The themes start to link together,” he said.

He added that they make decisions based on their best judgments, and that judgment is affected by hearing these individual stories.

“This is so valuable to help us do a better job of running the government. If we can do a better job of making sure businesses and people are successful so they can be productive, then we are going to be able to afford the things that people need. Right now, we are listening and by the end of March, we will present our budget and do our best to make sure it reflects the things we heard today.”

By Kinjal Dagli Shah