What could your municipality do to make you feel safer?
All municipalities across Simcoe County and beyond have been tasked by the province with coming up with a Community Safety and Wellbeing plan by Jan 1, 2021, and most local municipalities are in the midst of getting underway with the process.
“This is the beginning of a fairly critical process for us. It has implications in terms of our own community and our police-services delivery,” said Collingwood Mayor Brian Saunderson during the corporate and community services standing committee meeting on Monday night. “It’s going to help us to identify regional issues within the county.”
The project was first initiated by Bill 175, the Safer Ontario Act.
“Each plan must consider key risk factors existing in their respective communities such as systemic discrimination, affordable housing, poverty, mental health and other social factors that may contribute to crime,” Colleen Simpson, manager of 911 and emergency planning with the County of Simcoe wrote in her initial report to county council on the issue last summer.
“Once these factors have been identified, the plan will then prioritize these factors based on prevalence, risk level and those factors yielding the greatest potential for impact in community safety,” she wrote.
Simcoe County municipalities will be working together on joint plans.
The county will be split into five groupings for the exercise: South Simcoe (Bradford West Gwillimbury and Innisfil), Nottawasaga (Adjala-Tosorontio, New Tecumseth, Essa), South Georgian Bay (Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Clearview, Springwater), North Simcoe/Huronia (Penetanguishene, Midland, Tiny, Tay) and Couchiching (Orillia, Oro-Medonte, Ramara, Severn).
The plans will be formed by advisory committees comprised of representation from police service boards, municipal staff/councils and other local service providers in health/mental health, education, community/social services and children/youth services. The framework for the project identifies four areas of community safety and well-being planning: social development, prevention, risk interventions and incident response.
At the request of members of the county CAO group, the County of Simcoe has hired Karie Warner of Avail Consulting to co-ordinate and support the planning process.
In Collingwood, the corporate and community services standing committee voted on Monday to recommend endorsing participation in the project, as well as appointing interim chief administrative officer Sonya Skinner as the town’s representative on the Geographical Municipal Co-ordinating Committee. The decision will still need to be ratified at the next regular meeting of council.
“We would come back to council as we receive updates on this throughout the year,” said Skinner at the committee meeting on Monday.
“I was very excited to read this,” said Coun. Steve Berman. “I love anything that has us working collaboratively with our neighbours.”
Engagement of citizens in the process is mentioned in the framework, however details on how citizens can lend their input are not yet available.
