With the Province of Ontario partially reopening businesses and easing restrictions on public gatherings at the end of the month, Elliot Lake City Council reassessed the city program that offers free shopping and delivery of groceries for people over 70.
It happened Monday night at the Elliot Lake city council virtual council meeting.
Council decided the Age Friendly Delivers program, resurrected by the city this month to help seniors get groceries and personal care products shopped for and delivered free of service fees, will wrap up in three weeks.
The Friday, Feb. 11 end date for the service was approved Monday night. But that end date for the COVID-19 personal aid scheme is not chiselled in stone.
Coun. Norman Mann said he was uncomfortable with cancelling the program on a few days' notice without offering an alternative. He suggested Feb. 11 as a compromise date for the cutoff.
Coun. Sandy Finamore shared his concerns. She said clients deserve to have time to transition.
Private delivery companies charge fees, which puts them out of reach for some seniors, especially people living on fixed incomes now facing stiff food price hikes due to spiralling inflation.
Mayor Dan Marchisella said the province has been about one week early on its reopening declarations at throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
He fears that could lead to another surge of cases again in February.
Several councillors were wary of simply ending the Age Friendly Delivers program on a few days' notice.
Despite suggestions private businesses might be able to cushion the demand for home deliveries, no suitable replacement was identified.
CAO Daniel Gagnon said a general mail-out newsletter will be going to households by month's end to hopefully recruit private delivery services wishing to make their pitch as a replacement for the city's clients.
Treasurer Amy Sonnenberg said the city's restarted service has delivered to 52 people so far for a total of 82 deliveries, averaging about seven per day, on weekdays.
With the reopening of Elliot Lake's indoor recreation facilities, many of the city's rec workers who have staffed the delivery program at city hall will be shifting back to their regular jobs next month.
If there is a worst-case scenario and no alternatives are sourced to replace Age Friendly Delivers, council could still vote to extend the program at its Feb. 14 meeting.
On another note, technical difficulties denied the normal ZOOM feed of the virtual council meeting to viewers used to streaming council and committee meetings on the Elliot Lake city website.
Only an audio feed was available for most of the meeting. Unless viewers were familiar with the voices of council and staff participants, Monday night it was difficult to follow the proceedings missing the video portion.
Especially troubling for viewers were the votes council decided by a show of hands.