City Council’s Emergency and Community Services will meet to discuss one item: St. Matthew’s House’s (SMH) complaint about the procurement process for child care services for children with special needs.
In November 2015, City Council voted to go to tender for one provider to coordinate this service.
A competitive bidding process was undertaken in spring 2016, and in July, the winning bid was announced as Community Living Hamilton (CLH). SMH would no longer operate the portion of the program they had.
For SMH, the loss of this City contract represents $2.1-million in annual funding. Of the $2.1-million, $163,000 was directed to administrative functions.
In the end, the City will facilitate the transition of clients to CLH and is requiring CLH to grant employment interviews to all workers presently providing the service at SMH.
For the future of SMH, the city staff say they do not know the finances of SMH, and note that other city funded programs offered by the charity remain funded.