By any standard, the City of Elliot Lake's Age Friendly Delivers program has been an unqualified success.
Yet, at its Tuesday night virtual meeting, Elliot Lake City Council voted to end it as of next Dec. 31.
The program involves allowing vulnerable Elliot Lake seniors to place their grocery orders with the city and having them them shopped for locally and delivered by city employees.
It was put into effect late with a view to stem the spread of COVID-19 among city seniors who, due to their age, have been in the target zone for the pandemic ever since it began.
Municipal leadership at City Hall, the Elliot Lake Family Health Team, Algoma Public Health and Elliot Lake St. Joseph's General Hospital have all adopted a conservative policy designed to contain the spread of the virus. Since it started, Elliot Lake has recorded only three cases.
Toronto, Peel Region and Ottawa are the three regions that have shown the highest numbers. Overall, Northern Ontario has remained the region with among the fewest cases in the province.
In the face of these statistics, Elliot Lake city staff recommended ending the Elliot Lake Age Friendly Delivers program and Age Friendly Checks In at the end of the year.
The rollback was advocated in a report from Director of Finance Amy Sonnenburg and Ashten Vlahovich, the city's economic development coordinator.
"The Age Friendly Delivers program began March 20, and is still being offered by the city. Demand in the early months of the program was the highest and existing staff and displaced staff were utilized for the program," they wrote.
"Staffing included economic development staff for project development and oversight, treasury staff for processing all invoices and payments as well as tracking program usage, multiple staff from Recreation and Facilities for the shopping and delivery as well as 2 to 4 dedicated staff to take and process orders.
"Age Friendly Delivers has made 2,333 deliveries with total purchases valued at more than $168,000," they continued. "In total, 460 clients have been served. As of Oct. 3, 2,306 invoices have been sent and 2,294 payments received for a record of 99.5 percent payments received."
At Tuesday's council meeting, CAO Dan Gagnon had high praise for the role of Elliot Lake staff role in both Age Friendly Delivers and its companion program Age Friendly Checks In. The latter, which monitors seniors in their homes, was taken over by the Elliot Lake Family Health Team this summer.
"I just wanted to put a slightly finer point on what was mentioned by Councillor (Sandy) Finamore and give Miss Vlahovich and Miss Roy (Amanda Roy, Community Development Officer) and Miss Sonnenburg a huge amount of credit. This program was rolled out, literally within days," Gagnon said.
"If you see the date in the report, it started March 20. I mean the world still hadn't figured out what was going on. By March, there was heartbreak that turned out to be never ending, but the program was rolled out within days.
"Other than some minor tweaks, it hasn't needed an overhaul. It's just been rolling.
"This is a massive undertaking that is unprecedented, unheard of. And I think award winning," he concluded. "The Age Friendly program is certainly just a massive unprecedented feat in municipal administration that I think needs to be properly put into context. So thank you."
Council did not fully close the door on Age Friendly. Councillors voted in favour of Councillor Chris Patrie's amendment which left open the possibility of an extension into 2021.
"I am going to put a friendly amendment and, as Miss Sonnenburg probably recalls, I'm the one that said that we probably shouldn't be doing this because we are interfering with other businesses that are doing it and the stores," He stated. "But based on the situation that we have and the people that we do have, I just want to put a friendly amendment in there that should funding be required into 2021, that the council authorizes staff to apply for that funding."
His amendment passed.