At the St. Paul Community Council Meeting on Nov. 20, 2007 people talked about the following business:

AISH

Mary Anne Pelech indicated that there is some concern with regards to the gap in services for some as the funding transitions from PDD to AISH for transportation. For transportation for medical reasons the rate of 20 cents per kilometre will be provided through AISH for people with assets of less than $3,000.

AISH will be requiring annual, rather than monthly reporting of money earned. If, however, you have a change in income during the year, then you can be put back on monthly reporting. It is hoped that most folk will have a consistent source of monies earned and will then only have to file annually.

Consent with CRA is required in order for AISH to find out people's earnings from their income tax information.

AISH will be reviewed every 2 years.

Affordable Housing

Council members attended a mini-summit on housing in Edmonton on May 10-11, 2007. Approximately 40 people from across the province attended.

There is a new program under which, if an individual is evicted or homeless, they may apply for funding assistance in order to find housing.

There are 4 housing committees in St. Paul; St. Paul Affordable Housing Society, MD of St. Paul Foundation, SPAN and the St. Paul Safer Community.

It was noted that Cold Lake has representatives from affordable housing attending their community council meetings. Consideration should be given to some member of our Community Council to sit on any Affordable Housing committee in St. Paul.

St Paul is looking at increasing the number of subsidized units. There should be an announcement shortly regarding these units.

Special Olympics

St. Paul did well at the Vegreville Bowling Tournament at the end of October.

NE PDD Board

Sherry Young advised that:

• Some dollars will be going to service providers for staff retention and recruitment;
• Dec 1, 2007 will be the next board meeting. Tim Norman will speaking about Inclusive Education at the Board meeting.
• The Board has received excellent feedback regarding the conference in Bonnyville.
• Next year the conference will be held in Cold Lake.
• The Board is looking at providing a bursary for individuals that are willing ot take front line worker programs.
• No one was nominated for the Norm McLeod Awards that were held on October 19, 2007.

St. Paul Abilities Network (SPAN):

Tim Bear advised that Span is presently 30 employees short, with the result that they cannot start two programs.

SPAN is providing bursaries to Blue Quills College and the St. Paul Regional High School.

The agency is now all moved into to the new premises and the old building is now for sale.

The gym is presently booked up to 5 hours per day.

The Transportation Committee would like a more thorough survey before taking any next steps about the community’s transportation needs.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.