One of the highlights of being a Councillor is visiting with residents at local community events.
In my travels around Bay Ward over the last few weekends, attending the many winter carnivals and other community activities, I found myself impressed with the time and effort that is put forward by the volunteers who make these events happen. These Community activities play a pivotal role in enhancing the appeal and livability of neighborhoods. They provide residents with an opportunity to get to know one another, contributing to the development of a stronger and more desirable community.
Bay Ward is fortunate to have 14 community associations and 11 outdoor rinks, all sustained by the dedication of local community members who generously volunteer their personal time to flood rinks, organize events, and bring community initiatives to life. Among these activities, an often overlooked yet crucial element is the necessity for insurance.
Following the amalgamation of Ottawa in 2000, the city integrated different insurance arrangements for various community activities inherited from the former cities of Nepean, Gloucester, Ottawa, Kanata, and townships. The decision was to preserve many existing arrangements for community groups, a practice upheld for 24 years. However, as the city has undergone continuous growth, newer community groups have emerged, facing the challenge of independently sourcing insurance for their events. The escalating cost of insurance further compounds the issue, resulting in heightened expenses and increased disparity between communities covered by the City and those left without coverage. It is noteworthy that community outdoor skating rinks and community gardens fall into a separate insurance category, and their existing insurance arrangements remain unchanged.
The City of Ottawa’s original staff response to this was to take away the provision of City insurance from all the grandfathered community groups (124) and provide grants to enable any group who qualified to purchase their own insurance, in order to create a level playing field. Frankly, this was a terrible idea. Instead of expanding the program and recognizing the value of the efforts of community associations in organizing valuable and well-loved events in their neighbourhoods the City staff proposal would add a burden to community volunteers of finding their own community insurance for their activities, at a higher cost than the City’s.
I appreciate the work of the Federation of Citizens Association in ensuring that the voices of a variety of community associations across the city were heard. City staff organized two consultation sessions to answer questions and hear the concerns that community associations had regarding the challenges of getting insurance coverage to protect the public at their neighbourhood events. The overwhelming consensus was that the City’s insurance program should be expanded to include any community group who qualified, and that the City continue to provide the insurance for neighbourhood activities instead of forcing these groups to find their own insurance.
At the Finance and Corporate Services Committee meeting this week a detailed motion was presented by Councillor Kitts that offered a response to the community insurance situation and outlined conditions that community associations must meet to qualify for City insurance. This motion will be coming to City Council for consideration the next meeting on February 21st.
Although this motion did not offer a perfect solution it was well received as going in the right direction by recognizing the need to include more community associations in the City’s community insurance program. The existing cost to the City for this program is $254,000. Given the substantial efforts invested by local volunteers in organizing neighborhood events, this cost represents a bargain in fostering healthier, more connected communities of acknowledging the need to include more community associations into the City’s community insurance program.
As I said at the Committee meeting, community associations play an important role in our neighbourhoods. We must recognize and support them with an insurance plan to help them bring community-building events to our neighbourhoods, such as winter carnivals and summer community BBQs. Without the provision of this insurance many of these activities would not be able to occur.
I look forward to continuing to be engaged in the wonderful events that our community volunteers create giving residents the opportunity to come together and celebrate.
