Province announces funding for northern Ontario shelters, to cover costs related to COVID-19

The Ontario government is providing$255 millionto help municipalities and Indigenous program partners respond to an increase in COVID-19 cases in some emergency shelters and help keep vulnerable people safe.

Steve Clark, the minister of municipal affairs and housing, says thefocus is on helping sheltersweather the COVID-19 pandemic.

The money is meant to cover the costs associated with paying formotel and hotel spaces to support physical distancing, to hire more shelter staff, and buy more personal protective equipment.

The funds can also be used to support rent and utility banks to keep people who are struggling
financially from becoming homeless.

Clark says he's not going to dictate how the money is to be used, but rather each recipient will decide on their own priorities.

North Bay, Sudbury among communities to benefit

The payments announced Wednesday are the fourth instalments from the social services relief fund that was established in March2020.

The Nipissing Social Services Administration Boardreceived $2.6 million dollars.

Chair Mark King says part of that will go toward continuing to operate thelow-barrier shelter in North Bay which hadbeen struggling.

"We've been scrambling at the board level to keep the low-barrier shelter open until August and we had to move a number of different budgets around to make that happen. What this money now does is it solidifies the whole operation for the next yearor so," says King.

Boards in Timiskiming and Cochrane both received more than$737,000.The DSSAB in Algoma received $908,000and the board in Sault Ste. Marie received almost $1.4million. The Manitoulin-Sudbury District Services Board is getting just over $1 million.

The ministry is also is sending $1.5 million to the City of Greater Sudbury, which has avoided serious problems among people experiencing homelessness.

"We have to recognize that while [in]the City of Greater Sudbury there hasn't been a rising active cases in the shelter system, in other communities they have had some challenges, so that's again the process of having a service manager identify what's a priority in their city," says Clark.