Earlier this year, city of Toronto officials were told they would be getting $17.3 million in the 2006-07 fiscal year under the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (SCPI).The current Con excuse is an ongoing "administrative process". At best, that claim doesn't do anything to explain the initial funding cuts - and there's no apparent reason why any administrative process should be taking this long when the Cons committed to the funding over two months ago, and when the deadline for spending the money is approaching so quickly.
But after a July meeting the amount was abruptly cut to $11.4 million, with no explanation, and there is no indication the city will get the remainder, said Phil Brown, Toronto's general manager of shelter, support and housing administration.
A contract — authorizing the city to spend the money — has not yet been signed, making it impossible for the city to sign agreements with community agencies that provides services for the homeless, he added.
"It has cast a lot of uncertainty. We've had a lot of projects ready to go," Brown said, adding the money must be spent by March 31, 2007. That makes it especially difficult to proceed with building projects including new transitional housing and the renovation of a drop-in centre...
Funding under the seven-year-old program has helped create shelter beds and permanent transitional housing as well as projects to make shelter residents job-ready and get them identification to qualify for housing and health care.
Of course, that also means the Cons can succeed in undermining the purpose of the funding by obfuscating and delaying matters until it's too late to make any effective use of the money. Which is why the current public pressure is only a start to make sure that Canada's citizens who need the help the most actually get the support which the SCPI can offer.
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