New provincially-driven planning could help make Collingwood, and all municipalities, safer for residents.
Karie Warnar of Avail Consulting prepared a preliminary Community Safety and Well-Being Plan for South Georgian Bay and Springwater and presented it to Collingwood council during their strategic initiatives standing committee meeting on June 7.
For South Georgian Bay and Springwater, the local plan has identified three main areas of focus: mental health and addictions, housing, and access to services.
“The advantages of a more rural lifestyle can also present challenges for our residents regarding access to services,” noted Warnar in her report. “With much of the health, community, and social services located in the more densely populated areas of our community, our more rural residents may struggle to access and connect to the services they need.”
Under the Province of Ontario's Bill 175 (the Safer Ontario Act), the Ministry of the Solicitor General requires that the council of every municipality prepare and adopt a Community Safety and Well-Being Plan on or before July 1.
Phase 1 of the plan is to work with community partners to develop and post the plan by July 1. Phase 2 will involve facilitating the implementation of strategies within the plan at the local level.
As part of Phase 1, Warnar said 95 key informant interviews were completed with subject matter experts. An advisory body was formed, as were smaller working groups. An online community survey was sent out to the public. More community engagement will be done as part of Phase 2.
The end goal is to have stakeholders work together across sectors to improve community safety and well-being. The intention is address root causes through inter-sectoral collaboration.
As Community Safety and Well-Being plans are currently being prepared across the province, the County of Simcoe has taken the lead on organizing local plans.
As the Town of the Blue Mountains is in Grey County, they have not been included in the South Georgian Bay plan. Instead, The Blue Mountains is part of the joint Bruce and Grey County plan.
During the June 7 committee meeting, Coun. Deb Doherty asked Warnar if services shared between Collingwood and the Town of the Blue Mountains would be taken into consideration when preparing the South Georgian Bay plan.
“Is there an opportunity for us to incorporate issues that are common between both municipalities into our strategy?” asked Doherty.
Warnar said she has been in contact with the Grey-Bruce consultant who is tasked with creating their plan. She said that the areas of risk identified in both plans are consistent.
“We will stay connected, because we recognize... those residents are very much a part of your community,” said Warnar.
Once the preliminary plan is submitted to the province, the next steps are to form a local community safety and well-being table and identify who should be part of that table, which could include representation from areas of risk, police, municipal representation, Indigenous representation and residents with lived experience.
The strategic initiatives standing committee voted to recommend adopting the South Georgian Bay and Springwater Community Safety and Well-being Plan. The decision will need to be ratified at the next regular meeting of council.
To read the entire plan, click here.
