While a vocal champion of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), Stratford Coun. Geza Wordofa is pushing to eliminate the two city positions that oversee that programming.
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Citing the costs of these two employees, whose salaries and benefits added up to $251,860 in 2024, Wordofa said the price tag is simply more than it’s worth in a city like Stratford.
“I’m fully in support of diversity, equity and inclusion but, when you look at the demographics of Stratford, the investment of $250,000 for staffing alone is an irresponsible use of taxpayers money,” Wordofa, also the president and founder of the Huron -Perth Multicultural Association, explained in an email on Sunday.
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“We have a homeless crisis. We are on the verge of a potential economic crisis with the United States. I am sharing this as a diverse person. We have the potential right here in the community to provide the required diversity advocacy for a city of our size with volunteers,” Wordofa added.
Last month, Kevin Bonnell, the city’s manager of inclusion, equity and Indigenous initiatives, outlined the rationale for the programming, and the work they did, in a report to the finance and labor relations committee. This included a series of equity and accessibility training sessions for municipal services like the Stratford Police Service and the fire department. In an interview on Tuesday, however, Wordofa said there were other ways for the city to provide DEI training, such as YouTube videos and other online resources.
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“If you want to Google it, you can find a service about diversity and inclusion,” he said. The city could also look at approaches like guest speakers, a pilot program, or even volunteers, such as the more than 120 who work with the multicultural association, he said.
While he acknowledged the programming does provide value, Wordofa said he still felt welcomed when he first came to Ontario in 2011 before these kinds of policies were launched.
“Our city staff, they don’t need it because they are very smart. They are very good people,” he said.
At last week’s budget discussion, Wordofa’s motion to end the Stratford program was defeated, but council did direct staff to conduct a review. For Mayor Martin Ritsma, who voted against the motion, this was a better option.
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“Instead of marching an individual up that does the work and have that person share in a budget meeting the importance of their job, I think we’re better served to have a review and bring back recommendations to council after we do the review through our entire corporate leadership team about the impact that service has,” the mayor said on Wednesday.
As the child of Dutch immigrants, Ritsma said he sees the value of DEI policies and programming, but agreed there could be improvements and adjustments made. Ritsma, though, also suggested that DEI programming provides an economic benefit, noting there are some manufacturing companies with 500 to 1,000 employees where 70 per cent of recent applicants and hires are primarily from India and Africa.
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“If we do a good job of DEI in our city, I believe there’s going to continue to be the economic impact of those immigrants as they settle and stay in our community. I think the economic impact will outweigh the cost of running a DEI program,” Ritsma added.
How does Bonnell’s salary stack up?
In is his Dec. 9 report, Bonnell outlined the cost of his employment, along with that of the city’s accessibility, diversity and inclusion co-ordinator, Oonagh Vaucrosson, for 2024.
- Bonnell was paid $104,396;
- His EI, CPP and WSIB costs were $10,084,
- His benefits were $24,032
- This added up to a total of $138,512.
- Vaucrosson was paid $83,975;
- Her EI, CPP and WSIB costs were $9,158,
- Her benefits were $20,300
In his report, Bonnell also outlined the DEI programming at 20 different Ontario cities and regional municipalities. According to Bonnell, three of those locations — the Township of Center Wellington, the County of Essex and Woodstock — do not have a dedicated DEI budget, although Center Wellington does has an “expression of interest for an in-house DEI committee” and currently employees DEI co-op students for external related responsibilities. Norfolk County is currently working on a request for proposal to develop DEI programming. Elgin County is currently recruiting a manager of human resources for labor relations, accessibility and DEI that would be paid from $93,998 to $109,985.
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The Beacon Herald gathered data for the remaining municipalities for their DEI programming, including the salaries for the people in charge. While the job titles had some differences, DEI programming was under their purview. The data was gathered from job postings on municipal websites, on municipalinfonet.comand the Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association, as well sunshineliststats.com and ontariosunshinelist.com. Populations were based on the 2021 census.
Information for Ottawa and Mississauga, however, was not readily available.
- Clarington: Population of 101,427; DEI officer $94,542 to $114,917 per year
- District Municipality of Muskoka: Population of 66,674; DEI co-ordinator $31.49 to $34.56 per hour
- Caledon: Population of 76.58; co-ordinator of culture and engagement $74,404.70 to $91,183.26 per year
- St. Catharines: Population of 141,397; DEI manager $74,712 to $93,390 per year
- Huron County: Population of 61,366; DEI $38.01 to $44.47 per hour
- Guelph: Population of 146,600; senior advisor of equity, anti-racism and Indigenous initiatives $100,412 per year
- Kingston: Population 138,204; DEI adviser $84,282.02 to $105,277.54 per year
- Niagara Region: Population 484,840; manager of diversity, equity, inclusion and Indigenous relations $105,958.54 per year
- London: Population 434,099; director, anti-racism, anti-oppression unit $118,308 per year
- Region of Durham: Population 696,992; director of diversity, equity and inclusion $176,568 per year
- Toronto: Population 2.974 million; chief people officer $303,180 per year
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