Stouffville mayor, council should provide relief to temporarily laid off employees

Leadership during COVID-19 means more than cutting jobs, writes Jim Thomas

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 9, 2021

Town council has lowered the boom.

According to Whitchurch-Stouffville chief administrative officer Rob Adams, 19 full-time members of staff have been temporarily laid off due to a shortfall in revenue caused by COVID-19.

The downsizing will remain in effect for a minimum of 12 weeks, placing employees’ earliest return at mid-April. If then.

It would seem the majority of those sidelined are workers within the Leisure and Community Services Department, the people who oversee our parks; our arenas; and our museum as well as aquatics, fitness and recreation programs.

“In order to remain financially responsible to our taxpayers, we must mitigate our losses, which have unfortunately resulted in these cuts,” says the town’s chief administrative officer.

“This is a sad day for Whitchurch-Stouffville,” said Mayor Iain Lovatt. “This is not something we ever wanted to do. This decision did not come without serious contemplation but we must deal with these challenges head-on and make judgments that are best for taxpayers.”

“The town,” he says, “has suffered serious revenue shortfalls since the onset of the pandemic.”

We don’t dispute these conclusions. The current epidemic has affected all of us, some more than others. However, it’s up to leadership to lead, not only by inflicting financial hardship on staff who, by the way, do much of the work, but by example.

We ask: Have you, Mr. Mayor, taken a minimal salary decrease since the inception of this plague? Having been granted a sizeable pay hike at the start of your term, one might assume you would be the first to agree to a reduction.

And you, too, all six members of council. Don’t your hands shake when your unaffected pay cheques arrive? Just imagine how a giveback would result in a payback at future ballot boxes.

There’s a long list of high-level wage earners who should, if they would, accept wage cutbacks that might mentally ease the pain injected on those who, for 12 long weeks and maybe longer, bear the brunt of lesser incomes or no incomes at all. Please step forward.

It’s to be assumed that, due to the pandemic, the workload borne by members of council and some department heads has, like Leisure and Community Services, been reduced. For example, the agenda at a recent virtually recorded council meeting contained only three items.

Week after week, month after month, we’ve heard the proclamation “we’re all in this together.” Are we, or is it only on 19 members of the town’s Leisure and Community Service Department that the axe has fallen?

ADDITIONAL FUNDING
In the latest communique from Markham-Stouffville MPP Paul Calandra, additional funding has recently been provided by the Ford government to care homes in this riding. Amounts follow:

Bloomington Cove, Stouffville -- $250,100 for a total to date of $742,900; Chartwell Woodhaven, Markham -- $325,400 for a total to date of $1,207,200; Parkview Home, Stouffville -- $211,900 for a total to date of $746,900; Yee Hong Centre, Markham -- $156,600 for a total to date of $1,065,600 and Mark Haven, Markham -- $247,300 for a total to date of $802,700.

Explains Calandra: “The new funding will reduce the risk of the virus from entering long-term-care homes from the community by covering eligible expenses.”