As the recession continues more and more people in Grey County are expected to be on social assistance.
The County’s Social Services Committee presented their report to Council on Tuesday.
In the report, Committee Chair Ruth Lovell-Stanners commented on the increase in the number of people on Ontario Works.
Lovell-Stanners — the Mayor of Owen Sound — says there has been a steady increase in the case load numbers adding the numbers are at their highest it has ever been.
The increase began last August with 898 cases and there were over a thousand cases in December and January.
She says this is a sign of the times and these will be some of the challenges facing Grey County and around the world.
Lovell-Stanners says her department is expected to have more demand and therefore will increase their budget for 2009 and 2010.
She says the department spent about 20 thousand dollars less than the 1.5 million budget in 2008.
She says they are going to bump their budget up to 1.75 million dollars for 2009.