November 4, 2014

Soo Wong
Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Community
and Social Services
6th Floor, Hepburn Block
80 Grosvenor Street
M7A 1E9

Dear Ms. Wong:

It is an honour and a pleasure to have you as my Parliamentary Assistant. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the Ministry of Community and Social Services and to outline some of the important work that lies ahead of us.

As you know, our government has a plan to invest in the talent and skills of our people, build modern infrastructure, support a dynamic and innovative business climate, and provide better retirement security to people across the province. At the heart of this plan are partnerships with businesses, people and communities, which will help our government grow the economy, create jobs and implement solutions that have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.

This balanced and comprehensive plan is underpinned by a focus on fiscal prudence. The mandate letter I received last month from Premier Wynne reinforced our government’s commitment to balance the budget by 2017-18 and to pursue increased openness, accountability and modernization.

Parliamentary Assistants play a key role in delivering these priorities and have a responsibility to put our government’s plan into action.

As the Premier described in the ministry’s mandate letter, our role is to provide support to vulnerable Ontarians. This includes those individuals and families in financial need as well as people with disabilities and other special needs. I know that as a member of the Select Committee on Developmental Services, you have an in-depth appreciation for the challenges faced by adults with developmental disabilities and their families.

As Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Community and Social Services your specific responsibilities include:

  • guiding and helping align the inter-ministerial work needed to implement key recommendations of the Select Committee’s report. This will require working with our colleagues in several ministries to ensure that we remove any unnecessary barriers that make accessing our Developmental Services programs more difficult;
  • supporting any potential pieces of legislation that are introduced by the ministry; and,
  • attending events with/on behalf of myself and the ministry as well as meeting with interested ministry stakeholders.

I am confident that together, working in collaboration with our partners in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, we can deliver on our commitment to the people we are privileged to represent and serve. I look forward to working with you to deliver our ministry’s mandate, build Ontario up — and help achieve a brighter future for every person in this province.

Sincerely,

Helena Jaczek signature

Dr. Helena Jaczek
Minister