By Cecilia Nasmith
For Northumberland County Council, the reform of joint-and-several liability needs to be a key focus for the Eastern Ontario Warden's Caucus.
This point was discussed at council's March meeting, after Warden Bob Crate gave a verbal report on the special meeting of the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus that took place virtually on March 12 for the purpose of setting 2021 priorities.
Councillor Bob Sanderson noted that this issue is causing significant increases in insurance for all municipalities – sometimes in the range of 25% to 30%.
Joint-and-several liability is a legal concept that means any party to a liability situation could conceivably – under the right circumstances – end up paying the entire award. For example, Crate said, if there were a $1-million liability judgment against any group the county was party to and – for whatever reason – none of the other parties to the suit could pay, the county would be on the hook for all of it.
And that $1-million figure is extremely modest, he added, given the size of some of the awards handed out these days.
“I think it's very clear in some of our discussions that joint-and-several liability is probably not going to be an item governments are going to tackle, but I would like to make sure you take forward the concept of at least capping the liability,” Sanderson urged.
“That would be a reasonable first step that might be considered, rather than saying you should drop the whole thing.”
“That was discussed briefly, but I think it's one we will bring forward because I agree – I don't think it will go away,” the warden replied.
“But we have to figure out some way to mitigate to some degree the consequences.”
Joint-and-several liability, as well as social-assistance transformation, were designated as continued-advocacy items at the special EOWC meeting.
The Eastern Ontario Regional Network cellular network gap and mobile broadband improvement project heads the list of priority items, along with affordable housing, and long-term-care and health-care transformation.
The May 14 EOWC meeting was originally scheduled to take place in the County of Renfrew, Crate said, but will instead be another virtual meeting.
